‘Portal 2’ Co-Writer Jay Pinkerton Back at Valve

By Stefanie Fogel

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Former Valve writer Jay Pinkerton has returned to the company in an undisclosed role a year after he left, according to PC Gamer .

Reddit user OWLverlord spotted Pinkerton’s name listed on ’s staff page in the “Other Experts” category on Sunday. Pinkerton is perhaps best known for co-writing “Portal 2” with former Valve scribe Erik Wolpaw. He also reportedly worked on the “Team Fortress 2” comics and the “Left 4 Dead” series.

Pinkerton was one of several high-profile departures from Valve in recent years. Wolpaw left the developer in February 2017 and is now reportedly working on “Psychonauts 2” with Double Fine Productions. Another writer, Chet Faliszek, left in May 2017. His credits include two “Half-Life” episodes, the “Portal” series, and the “Left 4 Dead” series. He’s now working on a new project with Bossa Studios. “Half-Life” writer Marc Laidlaw left Valve in 2016 after 18 years because he wanted to go back to writing original stories.

Valve is currently working on a “Dota 2”-themed digital card game called “Artifact.” During a presentation for the project in March, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell said the developer is working on other titles as well.

“‘Artifact’ is the first of several games that are going to be coming from us. So that’s sort of good news. Hooray! Valve’s going to start shipping games again,” he said.

Since Pinkerton is currently listed in the “Other Experts” category and not the “Writer” category, it’s not clear at this time what he’ll work on during his new tenure at Valve. Variety contacted the company to find out, but it did not immediately respond.