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As it turns out, Jeri Ellsworth wasn't the only employee that made a departure from Valve yesterday. Gamasutra reported that a large number of employees were laid off. Many of them said something about "great cleansing" and "large decisions" in the organization's future when Gamasutra questioned them on the matter, but none would say more than that.

According to an analysis by Garry's Mod creator Garry Newman, nine employees lost their job yesterday (Ellsworth brings it to ten). Jason Holtman, Valve's business director, departed along with TF2 lead visual designer Moby Francke, senior developer Tom Leonard, developer Elan Ruskin, artist Realm Lovejoy, animator Keith Huggins, lead tester Marc Nagel, artist Bay Raitt, and animator Matthew Russell. The only confirmed layoffs at this point in time are Holtman and Ellsworth, the state of everyone else's position is currently up in the air. 

Apparently, the story of the layoffs was enough to get people running scared; layoffs are never a good thing, and many started to wonder if this meant Valve was going to be dropping a few projects. In a statement issued to Engadget, founder Gabe Newell assured everyone that this was not so:

"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." 

Source: GamesIndustry International

Nicholas Greene   FollowTech_Light A gamer at heart, Nick started writing when he was a child. He holds a BA in English, works as a freelancer, and loves every minute of it. One day, he hopes to net himself a career in game design - but that's something for the future.

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