Valve's Newell Issues Firings Statement

[Karloff]

Valve's Newell Issues Firings Statement

"We're not going to discuss why anyone in particular is or isn't working here," says Gabe Newell.

In the wake of an as yet unknown number of firings/layoffs/downsizing at Valve - including the likes of Jeri Ellsworth [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122094-Update-Valve-Fires-Hardware-Guru] and possibly also Jason Holtman, though the circumstances of his departure are unclear - Gabe Newell has issued a statement. There's nothing to worry about, he says, and that's pretty much all he says.

The full statement reads as follows:


We don't usually talk about personnel matters for a number of reasons. There seems to be an unusual amount of speculation about some recent changes here, so I thought I'd take the unusual step of addressing them. No, we aren't cancelling any projects. No, we aren't changing any priorities or projects we've been discussing. No, this isn't about Steam or Linux or hardware or [insert game name here]. We're not going to discuss why anyone in particular is or isn't working here.


Valve isn't a publicly traded company, and consequently doesn't have to have the same level of shareholder-reassuring PR that, say, a Blizzard would. That said, Valve is a Officer Krupke [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/technology/valve-a-video-game-maker-with-few-rules.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0] impression may not be enough to curb speculation, this time.

Source: Engadget [http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/13/valve-gabe-newell-layoffs-statement/]


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[Abomination]

When you OWN a company you do sort of have the right to decide who you do or do not employ. Discussing reasons for termination by a company can also be a breach of privacy of the individual. Many a lawsuit has been started on grounds of a company making a public statement about an individual, ruining their potential employment opportunities in the future and therefore drastically harming their personal livelihood.

The few who really do know what will happen are obliged NOT to tell the public and those who were laid off/fired will not likely have been told the true reason for their dismissal.

 

[Sixcess]

I think it's obvious what's happened - the cuddly Gabe we know and love has been replaced by his evil self from a parallel dimension, which explains his Beard of Evil. [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeardOfEvil]

Either that or he found out they've just been arsing about for the last eight years instead of working on Half Life 3 like they were supposed to.

 

[AstaresPanda]

All we need to know is that Valve is still alive and well and nothing has changed, projects are still going and the lights are still on. Why some of the gamers here feel the NEED/RIGHT to know someones personal life is beyond me. They are not celebs, Gabe and Valve dont owe us shit (cept wtf has happend to HL3 but thats a diff topic lol)

As long as valve are still around im happy. THQ died, Gas POwered Games might be in trouble now... so just be happy for that. And the fact we will see a HL3 at some point in the future

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

There are a lot of potential reasons for people, even entire teams, leaving a company; most are far less intriguing than what everyone is trying to build this up to

 

[OniaPL]

I bet they tried to convince Gabe to release the already-completed Half Life 3.

"What? Nonsense! You are fired, all of you!"

 

[Metalrocks]

just bring out half life 3 already. why is it taking so long of a sudden???

 

[MetalMagpie]

Sounds like the balance sheet wasn't as rosy this year.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Valve just admitting they're a bloody COMPANY. They're 40-50 somethings running a BUSINESS.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

I like how people are more defensive when the company involved is Valve.

To be fair people have ample reason to be that way when it comes to Valve, nobody wants to think something might be wrong with them when you've got hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars worth of games tied to their platform.

So yeah, hopefully this has all happened for a really mundane reason and nothing is wrong behind the scenes at Valve.

 

[Irridium]

I love how people go "Well it's a company/business, this happens all the time!"

That implies Valve is like most companies/businesses. True, they are one, but remember that they have never laid off or fired this many people at once. Or this many people period. It's pretty damn unprecedented for them. Especially considering this type of thing seems like standard procedure in the games industry at large.

It's very curious.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I love how people go "Well it's a company/business, this happens all the time!"

That implies Valve is like most companies/businesses. True, they are one, but remember that they have never laid off or fired this many people at once. Or this many people period. It's pretty damn unprecedented for them. Especially considering this type of thing seems like standard procedure in the games industry at large.

It's very curious.

I'm just irritated that people keep trying to prop up Valve as punk rebels when in fact they're 40-somethings running a business. It's a bit hard to try and act "independent and hip" when you run a goddamn billion-dollar service like Steam.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Gabe's running a business here. People come, people go and it's not always with cheerful smiles and bunches of flowers. He has no obligation to discuss what is clearly a series of private matters.

Plus, Gabe's totally rocking that beard.

 

[Ympulse]

Let's see, 25 high-profile employees. That's at least $300k/yr saved.

...nope, couldn't have been a financial decision when Valve nets that kind of money weekly.

I'm honestly curious as to why Valve purged that many people at once. Trying to maximize something on the spreadsheets before the end of the Fiscal year?

 

[grigjd3]

It's good practice for a boss not to discuss reasons for personnel decisions publicly. If Gabe were to tell everyone that so and so was inept, then he'd get a reputation for ruining people's careers and others wouldn't want to work for him. If he discussed openly changes in direction for the company, it could lead to speculation about whether the company has any sense of direction.

 

[Darks63]

Maybe this presages an announcement about scrapping the steambox?

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

To be fair people have ample reason to be that way when it comes to Valve, nobody wants to think something might be wrong with them when you've got hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars worth of games tied to their platform.

I don't agree with you.

When you built a reputation of EXTREME trust and have millions of players playing games on your non-transferable account-based platform, you are subject to a large amount of scrutiny. You are not paying for a service (no matter how hard others try to convince you, games are a PRODUCT) that is easily replaceable if the conditions are unfavorable. This isn't like netflix where you can just view whatever your feel like whenever and just keep paying a nominal fee. If that was the case, the nominal fee would result in FULL ACCESS TO THE ENTIRE STEAM LIBRARY ON DEMAND(wouldn't that be fantastic?). If something happens, your library is GONE and there is only one way to regain access to what you paid for.

Uh.. I actually agree with that but what does any of what you just said have to do with my post? Infact if anything you're only backing up what I said. People don't want to see valve in trouble because they don't want all their games to disappear. So what exactly are you disagreeing with?

 

[cerebus23]

Let's see, 25 high-profile employees. That's at least $300k/yr saved.

...nope, couldn't have been a financial decision when Valve nets that kind of money weekly.

I'm honestly curious as to why Valve purged that many people at once. Trying to maximize something on the spreadsheets before the end of the Fiscal year?

is that in 1960s dollars? isn't 300k est. seemingly a bit low for a high profile heads of departments type people? especially when one of them collects pinball games to put in your office.

25 seems rather excessive for nothing out of the ordinary however, maybe they were all planning a coup and gabe caught wind nipped it in the bud.

and some of these people were long time employees by the look of it, maybe it was simply a case of old dogs not learning the new tricks fast enough for gabes taste and it was just time to trim the fat so to speak.

 

[VinLAURiA]

I'm starting to feel a little wary of VALVe. I pretty much loved them as much as I love Nintendo, but it seems to me lately that the entire company is shifting its focus to just maintaining Steam while they work on DotA 2: Another Godawful Piece of MOBA Trash. Guess that smell of money emanating from LoL was a bit too strong.

 

[Spygon]

This is why companies don't just jump into the hardware market as companies need a lot of financial backing to pull it off.