Valve’s San Francisco unit shut down,ex-employees form indie start-up

Updated on 11-Aug-2013
HIGHLIGHTS

Valve's tiny San Francisco team goes indie - the two-man indie outfit acquired last year have decided to part ways after 8 months of operation.

Valve and its small team development team in San Francisco have decided to part ways, IGN reports.

The studio began as Star Filled Studios – founded and staffed by Tod Semple and Jeff Gates, who combined to join the dots between Blizzard, Maxis, PopCap and LucasArts.

Valve hired Popcap and Blizzard veterans Tod Semple and Jeff Gates to take charge of the firm back in December. Although both of them are no longer employed at Valve, Semple and Gates will continue working on their current project as the newly named Temple Gates Games.

Jeff [Gates] and I are working on indie games again,” ex-Valve employee Tod Semple told IGN. “We were working for Valve in a remote office in San Mateo. It turned out that there weren’t many benefits for either side in that arrangement.

“Valve was super cool about it and is letting us continue to work on our game and is also giving us the office. So Jeff and I are starting up a new company called Temple Gates Games.”

Valve also said in a statement to IGN.

“We were big fans of their prior work. We worked with them during their start-up phase, but they’re independent now and still working on their game. We wish them the best of luck.”

The team is going to stay together, projects continue, and everyone’s satisfied.

Source: IGN

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