Valve Working on Hardware via Job Posting

by William D'Angelo, posted on 13 April 2012 / 3,642 Views

Valve may have let slip they are working on hardware via a job posting for a hardware engineer. This is following the rumor that Valve is working on a Steam Box. The main role of the hardware engineer is to "work with the hardware team to conceive, design, evaluate, and produce new types of input, output, and platform hardware."

"For years, Valve has been all about writing software that provides great gameplay experiences," said the job posting. "Now we’re developing hardware to enhance those experiences, and you can be a key part of making that happen. Join our highly motivated team that’s doing hardware design, prototyping, testing, and production across a wide range of platforms. We’re not talking about me-too mice and gamepads here – help us invent whole new gaming experiences."

One possibility is what Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi has talked about in the past. "We're prepping the Steam Big Picture Mode UI and getting ready to ship that, so we're building boxes to test that on. We're also doing a bunch of different experiments with biometric feedback and stuff like that, which we've talked about a fair amount. All of that is stuff that we're working on, but it's a long way from Valve shipping any sort of hardware."

6 Comments

thetonestarr (on 14 April 2012)

It's wearable computing. According to Michael Abrash, the guy at Valve in charge of the project, it's not even necessarily research into an actual product to be released into the public. Valve is about research, imagination, and experimentation, and that's - so far - all this project is. Check it out on blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/

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Slimebeast (on 17 April 2012)

Apple and Valve in the console business, it's just a matter of time. MS, Sony and Nintendo are struggling old dinosaurs while Apple, Samsung and Valve are very successful companies with innovation and ambition. Now I don't think all of MS, Sony and Nintendo will quit but perhaps one of them will be forced to give in when Apple and Valve enter the console market.

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Staude (on 14 April 2012)

On my phone so haven't read the full story, but according to an article, its wearable computing. So, if that's the case.. It'll be pretty interesting to see what they come up with.

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duckypwns (on 14 April 2012)

This has been "denied" and "confirmed" multiple times. I'll believe it when I see it. Valve in the console world may actually be a good thing. At least Nintendo would have some real competition for once; an actual reason to try to pump out more and better games. Sony and Microsoft really haven't been providing that. They've only offered gamers toned down and overpriced pre-built computers defined by their restrictions. Generation 7 was a disappointment but I think things are actually headed in the right direction. Depending on how tides turn in the near future, I think generations 8 and 9 have a chance to be the greatest periods of gaming yet.