Portal 2 co-author Jay Pinkerton leaves Valve

Writer Jay Pinkerton, who worked at Valve on games such as Team Fortress 2 and Portal 2, has left the US company. This makes him the fourth writer to quit his job at the company since early 2016.

The departure was noted by the site RockPaperShotgun, after Pinkerton stated on his Facebook page that his job at Valve has come to an end. He has not disclosed why he left the company. He has worked at Valve since 2008 and co-wrote the story of the game Portal 2 with Erik Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek. He also worked on the ‘Meet the..’ series of Team Fortress 2, which introduces the various characters in the game. .

His co-authors have since left Valve as well. Faliszek spent 12 years at Valve and announced his departure early last month. He worked on Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, both Portal games and both Left 4 Dead games.

In February, Erik Wolpaw left, who co-wrote the lyrics for the studio’s games with Faliszek. In early 2016, Marc Laidlaw, who was previously employed by Valve and was responsible for the story and dialogue for both Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Wolpaw and Laidlaw indicated that there was no disagreement between them and the studio. Laidlaw indicated that he wanted to write books; Wolpaw is involved as a writer in the development of Psychonauts 2. It is unclear what Pinkerton will do next.