• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Valve's Director of Business has left [GAF Rumor: TF2 Art Lead, SFM Head Gone, More]

B

BlockheadBrown

Member
Jason Holtman has left Valve, Develop understands.

A reliable source has told us Valve's director of business has departed the company, although it is currently unclear as to the reasons for his exit.
The news follows the studio's decision to also fire hardware engineer Jeri Ellsworth, who had been working on prototype controllers for the upcoming Steam Box.
Gamasutra has also reported up to 25 employees have been let go from the company, mainly in the hardware and Android development divisions.
Holtman acted as one of the company's primary points of contact for devs using Valve's digital distribution platform Steam, playing a key role in developer relations at the studio, and has worked at the development giant since 2005.

The news of his departure will come as a shock to many, given has important role at the firm and the continued success of Steam, a platform driving the success of the PC games market.

Develop has contacted Valve for more details on the matter and we will update the story as soon as we learn anything.

More follows
Click to expand...

http://www.develop-online.net/news/43261/Jason-Holtman-leaves-Valve

Update:

balladofwindfishes said:
been just informed from a friend of mine who knows them:

Moby Francke, the art lead of TF2, is gone
Bay Raitt (lead of SFM) is gone too [Source Film Maker]

._.
Click to expand...
balladofwindfishes said:
Well, Bay and Moby both removed from the Employee Roster just now :(

Also has other employees who were fired.
Click to expand...

angular graphics said:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=33992281&postcount=32
http://www.diffchecker.com/h14Uhs74

HOLY SHIT! Elan Ruskin gone!!! Tom Leonard gone!!!! Realm Lovejoy gone!!!!!!
Click to expand...

CountAntonius said:
PC Gamer Article

PDATE: Garry’s Mod creator Garry Newman tweets the appearance of a number of differences on Valve’s staff page seen through Diff Checker. The comparison tool indicates the removal of nine employee bios from the People section of Valve’s company page, listed below:

Moby Francke, Half-Life 2 character designer and Team Fortress 2 art lead
Jason Holtman, director of business development for Steam and Steamworks
Keith Huggins, character animator and animator for Team Fortress 2 “Meet the” video series
Tom Leonard, software engineer for Half-Life 2 and Left 4 Dead
Realm Lovejoy, artist for Half-Life 2, Portal, and Left 4 Dead. She was also part of the original DigiPen-turned-Valve team that created Narbacular Drop, the inspiration for Portal
Marc Nagel, test lead for Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and patch updates
Bay Raitt, animator for Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal
Elan Ruskin, engine programmer for Left 4 Dead, Portal 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Matthew Russell, animator for Team Fortress 2 “Meet the” video series
Click to expand...

These are significant roles....
Click to expand...
 
F

FordGTGuy

Banned
BlockheadBrown said:
A reliable source has told us Valve's director of business has departed the company, although it is currently unclear as to the reasons for his exit.

The news follows the studio's decision to also fire hardware engineer Jeri Ellsworth, who had been working on prototype controllers for the upcoming Steam Box.

Gamasutra has also reported up to 25 employees have been let go from the company, mainly in the hardware and Android development divisions.
http://www.develop-online.net/news/43261/Jason-Holtman-leaves-Valve
Click to expand...

This isn't good sounds like there maybe some dissent in the halls of Valve over this.
 
D

DirtRiver

Member
Guevara said:
There's no way to spin this as a positive.
Click to expand...

We don't even know why this is, it can be positive or negative. We don't know anything about why they were fired, only that they were.

It certainly isn't because of any sort of money issues, we're talking about Valve here.
 
P

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
maybe he just got sick of other people saying "but there ARE no managers"
 
A

Andrew.

Banned
What the hell is going on today? First all this Aliens: CM news, then TLOU gets legitimately delayed and now Valve is falling apart?

What. The. Fuck.
 
P

Patryn

Member
DirtRiver said:
We don't even know why this is, it can be positive or negative. We don't know anything about why they were fired, only that they were.

It certainly isn't because of any sort of money issues, we're talking about Valve here.
Click to expand...

We don't know that he was fired. It's also possible he resigned.

Unless you're talking about the 25 layoffs.
 
F

FordGTGuy

Banned
fvng said:
Thinning the herd
Click to expand...

Apparently this guy left on his own... I'm guessing the decision to fire was Gabe and Holtman didn't agree with it and decided to leave.

beast786 said:
So what will happen to my stream library when this falls?
Click to expand...

Steam isn't going anywhere they can always get more employees in a economy like this.

Hot Coldman said:
It's been 8 years, maybe he got bored.

Oh who am I kidding, it's Valve, I hope everything's OK there...
Click to expand...

Yes it's just a coincidence that the business director left after 25 people were let go.
 
Alexios

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
He'll be able to get a job real fast and Valve won't lose any of what he's worked for so far because they own his business e-mails etc, though it may take some time to get up to speed. It's not like any developer in his right mind will skip Steam because of this. Calm down people, you need a lot more bad news to bring Valve down, like the new people they will bring aboard being asked to do some huge and bad shift in direction or something...

I do think they'll backpedal on the way greenlight is used among other things but that doesn't mean it's why he left.
 
S

shandy706

Member
Seriously guys, Microsoft is on the verge of countering Sony's Feb. 20th conference with, Durango/Steam/Valve merger.



(evil laugh)
 
T

TheExodu5

Banned
Holtman acted as one of the company's primary points of contact for devs using Valve's digital distribution platform Steam, playing a key role in developer relations at the studio, and has worked at the development giant since 2005.
Click to expand...

I can't even process this sentence. Is it me or is this terribly written?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Dante's Developer Disdain - Traversing The Circles Of Gaming Hell!
Opinion Drama Game Dev
1
615
AlteredForms replied
The "I survived development hell" club (7 years+) of games.
2
62
7K
Ozriel replied
SIE's New Business Pillars
2
58
6K
Mibu no ookami replied
How capitalism killed Valve, one of the best video game studios
2
64
5K
Bernkastel replied
PC Gamer staff discuss if we really need HL3
2
58
6K
nekkid replied
Top Bottom