Valve's Jay Pinkerton, Contributor to 'Portal 2,' Latest Veteran Writer To Leave Studio

Valve has lost yet a fourth major write: Jay Pinkerton has left the studio according to a Facebook status update, Rock Paper Shotgun reports.

Pinkerton, who joined the studio in 2008, was best known for contributing to Portal 2, along with former Valve writers Erik Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek, and working on other secondary spinoff releases for titles like Team Fortress 2. Previously, Pinkerton worked at publications including Cracked and National Lampoon.

Read: Valve Writer Chet Faliszek, Contributor To Games Like Portal, Leaves Studio

The move makes Pinkerton the latest long-running writer to leave the studio within the past few years. Faliszek departed Valve in May after 12 years with the studio. Faliszek was a contributor to major Valve titles like the Half-Life 2 episodes, the Left 4 Dead series and Portal 2. Later on in his tenure, Faliszek was also a major champion of Valve’s work in virtual reality with platforms like the HTC Vive.

Wolpaw left the studio in February. Along with Faliszek, Wolpaw was part of the seminal gaming reviews site Old Man Murray and co-wrote on games including Portal 2 and the Half-Life 2 series. Wolpaw has since become a writer for the upcoming Psychonauts 2 from developer Double Fine Productions. Long-time writer Marc Laidlaw became the first major writing departure from Valve in August. Laidlaw, who joined Valve in 1997, was the lead writer on Half-Life and Half-Life 2.

While Valve has remained quiet about the departures, they generally have not been acrimonious. Faliszek previously told GamesIndustry.biz the departure wasn’t on bad terms, but he’d had a lengthy stint with the studio and “wanted to change things up.” Similarly, Laidlaw said in an email to a fan he wanted, in part, “a break from the collaborative chaos of game production.”

But at the same time, the departure of Pinkerton only adds to the speculation around Valve’s direction. The studio made its name with groundbreaking first-person titles like 1998’s Half-Life and 2007’s Portal, but in recent years, it has focused on esports with titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and its Steam online retail platform.

Read: Valve Is Working On A New Virtual Reality Controller For The HTC Vive

Valve hasn’t left single-player games entirely. In a reddit Ask Me Anything earlier this year, studio head Gabe Newell enigmatically said Valve was working on a traditional single-player title in the Half-Life or Portal universe. But with the dearth of new single-player titles since 2011’s Portal 2 — along with the dormant Half-Life series that’s been on ice since 2007 — the studio’s emphasis at the moment is clearly elsewhere.