Valve lays off multiple employees, report says

UPDATE 2: Valve boss Gabe Newell has responded to reports of significant layoffs at the company by attempting to assure fans that any personnel changes haven’t affected its current projects.

UPDATE: Develop reports that Valve's director of business Jason Holtman has left the company, corroborated by his new absence from its employees page. The original story follows.

Valve has laid off multiple employees as part of "large decisions" around the office, Gamasutra reports. The home of Steam and Half-Life allegedly terminated employees from multiple divisions, including its hardware and Android development departments.

Gamasutra said 25 employees may have been eliminated, though it was unable to confirm this number. The anonymous employees indicated the layoffs were a result of company-wide challenges rather than individual problems.

Hardware engineer Jeri Ellsworth, who was working on new control interfaces to go along with the Steam Box, tweeted yesterday that she was fired.

The future has otherwise seemed bright for the private company, which plans to begin producing its own gaming hardware and partner up with filmmaker J.J. Abrams. We've reached out to Valve for verification and comment on the report, and will update this story with any further information.