http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/13/valve-let-go-around-25-staff-it-seems/
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=513175
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/02/13/valve-layoff-hardware-mobile/
http://www.develop-online.net/news/43261/Jason-Holtman-leaves-Valve

So, is anybody surprised about all those sudden layoffs? Will this be the end of the Steambox? (crossing fingers)
Is the HL3 team next to be fired? :P

Stupid question, I think, but where are these companys out of?

I don't know, but I sure hope Steam is safe.

Valve is the perfect example of a company trying to reach further than they possibly can, for the past few months.

Valve/Steam is based in Seattle, WA.

Isn't Seattle dying? I mean not that it's going to vanish or anything but for a while it was the fastest growing city in the country and now I don't think so. They got an NBA team back, hopefully that will help.

Never knew they were in Seattle >> With Shodan making mess of GoG, I wouldnt be too suprised if Deus was then making its first moves in Valve ;) ...although I was pretty certain Apple would be the first company to build an arcology...

Shame I manage to miss the Shadowrun kickstarter T_T

My bad, but I happy to hear that. I love Seattle and I want to see it continue to take off. Still that leaves the thread unanswered. My brother has his own computer company in Sacramento and while it's not a game site several of his clients are game related; maybe he could give me a feel for why this is happening.

I'd have said Bellevue but most people at least have some concept of where Seattle, WA is! To me Bellevue will always be a mental institution in NYC ;-p

There are a ton of huge companies in the area -not the least being Microsoft (across the river), Boeing, and Amazon etc. But I've heard it said that one shouldn't move there (or Portland, OR for that matter) without a job in hand....

With the way that Valve is structured (completely flat org, with only GabeN being above anyone else) it's difficult to know why something like this happens. It may not be a layoff and it could simply be that a number of people decided to start their own company or something like that. Without someone directly involved speaking up it's nearly impossible to know what's going on. My comment was more to illustrate that Valve is outside of Seattle rather in Seattle itself, but you're right, when I talk to my East Coast friends they always get that funny look when I mention living in Bellevue when I was younger.

As for not moving without a job, I'd fully agree with that. Mainly because all the hiring that's being done is for highly skilled fields, where they will interview and hire you from anywhere in the world and then pay to move you out here. There's a ton of current openings and more in the future, but don't show up at the door expecting to get a job in the next hour.

Maybe they're upset GOG is getting SS2 first?

In all seriousness, it's really surprising to hear that kind of news from Valve. It doesn't seem like they're in any kind of bad position, but perhaps Newell decided some of the new pursuits in hardware or other areas weren't working out the way he would have liked.

You say that as a joke but I think it merits some looking into. I can't do it as I've got a big Red Wings/Blues game on t.v tonight. Why don't you take it! I'll expect a full report on my desk in the morning! Keep up the good work!

You say that, but there are two things that have really struck me as very odd of late.

Firstly: I went onto the Steam storefront on the first day of the Christmas sales and had absolutely no problems getting online. I'd like to assume this was due to Valve finally getting their act together with respect to server capacity, but still...

Secondly: Releases seem to be getting a bit rarer. Whereas releases came every day with a couple of major ones each week a year or two ago, major releases are a lot thinner on the ground now, and indie releases seem to be drying up a bit too.

Well, for the last like what, six months to a year, it seems like every other digital retailer sells Steam keys cheaper than Steam sells the game for. That's bound to cut into the money they were so used to making up until recently. For example, many etailers (is that a word?) were selling the new Aliens game for 33 - 37 USD, but it stayed at 49.99 USD the whole time at Steam. What did they expect would happen?

I think it's just the time of year, we're still kind of in the post-Christmas lull. I'd expect releases to pick up again in a month or so.