Former Valve writer says "giant teams just don't work" in video game development, unless you're making GTA 6

In a newly released YouTube interview, Chet Faliszek—who spent 12 years at Valve and co‑wrote *Left 4 Dead*—explains why he doubts a hiring surge would improve Valve’s output. He points out that *Left 4 Dead 2* was built by a squad of roughly 45 people and suggests that inflating that number tenfold would not have yielded a superior product. Faliszek also references Ubisoft’s practice of staffing *Assassin’s Creed* with about 3,500 “top artists,” and notes that only a few billion‑dollar undertakings, such as Rockstar’s *GTA 6*, truly require “a gajillion” hands. His critique extends to the notion that larger teams breed indecision, backtracking, and costly delays, a pattern he links to high‑profile flops like *Dead Island 2* and the protracted development of *Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2*.

The interview surfaces amid a broader industry conversation about scale versus agility. While studios such as Epic and Activision routinely field hundreds of developers across multiple locations, the rise of remote collaboration tools has made sprawling structures more feasible—but also more prone to “whisper networks” and ego‑driven bottlenecks, according to Faliszek. His comments echo a growing sentiment that the push for ever‑higher fidelity and live‑service content often inflates headcounts without proportionate quality gains. Meanwhile, Valve’s continued reliance on small, iterative updates for titles like *Team Fortress 2* and *Counter‑Strike* demonstrates a viable alternative: a lean core team supplemented by community mods and post‑launch patches.

If Valve maintains its compact development philosophy, it could preserve its reputation for rapid, innovative releases while avoiding the overhead that plagues larger studios. However, the company may also face limitations when attempting to compete on the scale of open‑world, next‑gen blockbusters that demand massive asset pipelines and cross‑disciplinary coordination. Watch for any shift in Valve’s hiring patterns, especially if a future title aims to match the scope of *GTA 6* or if the studio adopts hybrid models that blend small core teams with outsourced specialists.