Late last night it was revealed that Jay Pinkerton has left Valve after working nearly ten years for the mammoth-sized company: making him the fourth veteran writer to say goodbye to Valve just in the last 18 months.

The news came via a post on Pinkerton's Facebook. No further details as to why he is leaving -- nor any official send-off comments -- have been provided at the moment of writing this.

For anyone who has been following Valve recently, Pinkerton's departure -- sadly -- comes as no surprise. The announcement comes on the back of Chet Faliszek's (Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Half-Life writer) announcement that he was leaving Valve after more than 12 years with the company. And before Faliszek left,  Valve writer Marc Laidlaw who joined the company at its very beginning and who was the sole writer on Half-Life and Half-Life 2 left (January 2016), and a little more recently (February 2017), Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Half-Life writer, Eric Wolpaw, also parted ways with the company.

The departure of the above mentioned three -- and now of Pinkerton as well -- surely doesn't bode well for the continuation of coveted series like Half-Life, Portal, and Left 4 Dead, but it also isn't a great sign for any who are looking for Valve to create any story-heavy games in the future.

As you may know, since 2011 when Portal 2 launched, Valve has largely been concerned with three things: expanding its digital marketplace Steam (which it has done very successfully), focusing on eSports-friendly and competitive titles, and pioneering the VR space, the latter of which it has "three full games" (unannounced) in development for.

As of right now, none of four above mentioned writers have disclosed what (if anything game-related) they intend to do next.

What say you? What is Valve's future? And does that future include series like Half-Life and Portal?