Jeri Ellsworth, hardware developer for Valve, posted on twitter yesterday that she had been fired. Jeri was known mostly for her work on the new Valve console the ‘Steam Box’ which was revealed in early January this year. As the tweet below states, Jeri hopes to move onto “new exciting projects,” which probably won’t be a problem after working for a company like Valve.

Having only joined Valve just over a year ago in late 2011, Jeri was part of the Steam Big Picture team which were developing ways for Steam to be used on the TV. The big picture went live in December last year as Valve’s first step towards creating a PC-Console hybrid for all kinds of gamers.

Update: It seems more than just Jeri Ellsworth were let go from Valve and Steam in what the affected workers are calling “the great cleansing.” Although the employees who were let go from Valve have been asked not to speak about specifics as of yet, the number “25” has been thrown around, with Hardware and Android being affected areas of the cuts. Valve have not yet given an official statement or any clarification on why the cuts have been made but with such a large number of workers being fired, it looks less likely to be a performance issue with the individuals and more of a company overhaul. VGU will keep you updated on any developments within this story.

Gabe Newell released this statement regarding the lay offs: “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.”

What does this entail for the future of the Valve console? Will you be buying it? Let us know in the comments below!