Isn't Valve supposed to me a top performer, doing real well with Steam and whatnot?  What the heck does it mean if they are laying off a number of people?

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/250749/report-up-to-25-laid-off-at-valve/

regression to the mean, the videogame industry is coming off an extreme set of circumstances the past couple years and is in a correction phase. .

Valve isn't really in the videogame business any more. Their revenue does not come from games.

The run Steam.  Steam is a core part of the PC gaming business.  And they are apparently still developing content.... or had been.  What does their revenue come from if not game stuff?

Any new info on Steambox? anyone?

I think he means most of their revenue comes from selling other publisher's games rather than their own games though he worded it poorly if he that is what he meant.

How does one get fired from Valve if the place has no bosses? I like to think a Battle Royale of sorts took place or Gabe Newell came down and ate them.

its purely a business desicion. they are still extremely profitible and didnt need to fire those people. But they did because they didnt feel they needed them anymore.

not saying this is the case.

But sometimes you layoff people because they're not needed, or were part of a project that you no longer want to persue. 

If you keep people for the sake of keeping people. That is just dumb and I sure wouldn't feel confident with you running my company.

It simply means that Valve are cutting back on development teams, they make nearly all their revenue and progress through digital distribution service and outsourcing graphics technology and developer tools to others.
Valve are in good shape, they're simply removing surplus staff they don't need.