Killed their podcasts too, which were good even if they were inveterate hipsters who played the video games you’d imagine Portland hipsters to play[0] and couldn’t pronounce Japanese names.

[0] Earthbound inspired platformers about how it’s okay to feel sad sometimes

Citation needed. Wikipedia at least says that they were acquired while Alyx was in development and that they just joined the overall dev team.

It's an opinion comment on the internet, not a dissertation, but I base it on talking with one person who worked at valve hardware for a time and public information from the ex campo santo people's blogs and things. I could be very wrong and would love to hear from them, but I have a strong "what could have been" for 'valley of the gods.'.

Thanks for explaining. You made a claim outside of your personal experience, so expect to be asked to back it up. I’m not sure why you’re surprised.