In the midst of the Steambox hardware in development, a disheartening piece of news from Jeri Ellsworth’s Twitter feed shows that the lead hardware designer is no longer working with Valve.
Jeri Ellsworth was working on controller prototypes at Valve, which included integrated biofeedback technology that would work in concert with the Steambox platform.
Jeri is also a noted hardware hacker and operates Ricochet Pinball and has created some awesome hardware innovations.
With the Steam Box in development, and additional layoffs occurring, this left us wondering what Valve is doing. To put us all at ease, Gabe Newell had the following to say in regards to aforementioned layoffs at Valve:
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.”
We can only hope these changes move Valve int he right direction. We wish Jeri Ellsworth an exciting journey in her future endeavors.
