According to a “reliable source” over at Develop, Jason Holtman, Director of Business at Valve, has departed from the company for currently unknown reasons. Holtman has played a key role in developer relations, being one of the company’s primary contacts for teams using Valve’s digital distribution platform Steam.
This report follows the news that hardware engineer Jeri Ellsworth, who was hired to make “Steam games more fun to play in the living room” was also let go, stating in a twitter message, “Yup. Got fired today. Time for new exciting projects.” Gamasutra has reported up to 25 employees have also been fired from the company, mainly from the hardware and Android development divisions.
In response to this speculation, Gabe Newell has issued a statement to Engadget.
“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 canceling 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.”
Report filed by Thomas Coutts