Valve Fires Hardware Hacker Jeri Ellsworth

Jeri Ellsworth, a hardware hacker from Seattle who was hired by Valve last year to work on game hardware, just announced on Twitter that she has been fired. No other information was offered, such as the reasons for her sudden departure or what she plans to do now, aside from "new exciting projects." Valve hasn't said anything about the decision, either.

The tweet showed up at 9:40pm EST, and was both simple and direct, stating: "Yup. Got fired today. Time for new exciting projects." She hasn't yet responded to any inquiries about what went down and what she plans on doing next. Ellsworth is perhaps most popularly known for the Commodore 64 emulator joystick she created before joining Valve, which sold over half a million units.

The folks over at Engadget interviewed Ellsworth back in September 2012, during which time she is said to have expressed enthusiasm for her job, speaking fondly of the company's work environment. During that time, she said that her team was working on the development of a controller to make playing Steam games more enjoyable.

Per the interview, it was obvious that Ellsworth hadn't had any plans to leave the company, having stated that her team has a one-year goal for creating the controller, among other things. What went wrong that prompted the company to fire her is unknown, and there's a good chance an explanation will never surface. Still, we'll be keeping an eye out for more details, so stay tuned.

[via Twitter]