Valve entering the hardware market. New game console?

17,572
1,165
Joined
Apr 7, 2008
A job listing on Valve’s site confirms that the company will begin developing hardware. A listing for an industrial designer says “Valve is traditionally a software company. Open platforms like the PC and Mac are important to us, as they enable us and our partners to have a robust and direct relationship with customers. We’re frustrated by the lack of innovation in the computer hardware space though, so we’re jumping in.”

The post continues, adding that Valve is interested in creating new user experiences. “Even basic input, the keyboard and mouse, haven’t really changed in any meaningful way over the years,” it says. “There’s a real void in the marketplace, and opportunities to create compelling user experiences are being overlooked.”

The post specifies that the position will add “expertise in product design and manufacturing, ergonomics, usability, aesthetics, and surfacing.” Candidates are also expected to have “6+ years of professional experience shipping world-class, high-tech hardware products” and “a thorough understanding of product design principles.”

Screen-Shot-2012-09-03-at-12.20.26-PM1.png

Speculation about Valve’s entry into the hardware market has been flying since March, when rumors suggested Valve was working on a Steam Box console. Valve later debunked the rumors, commenting that the world is “a long way from Valve shipping out any sort of hardware.” Later, a listing for an electronics engineer to work on "platform hardware" emerged, as well as a blog post discussing wearable computing.

We’ve reached out to Valve for comment about the job listing and will update with any additional information we receive.

Thanks to CVG for the heads up.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/03/valve-confirms-hardware-development
 
Speculation by an IGN user:

They're doing this so they can release Half Life 3. Calling it now.

The only reason it hasn't been released is because they want a leap in technology so they can 'wow' gamers. With the hardware currently, it's not enough to surprise and shock people. They want to make a ground breaking game like the first two

They can only do that if they push the hardware and show us things we haven't seen in video games before.

Sounds very feasible
 
Interesting....

This the same company that created counter strike right?
 
Half life 2 is the best game ive ever played.
Half Life 1 and 2 are 2 of the greatest games of all time that changed the gaming world forever. I doubt they are releasing a console any time soon though... They have been toying like this for the past few years. It makes sense though since they have Steam and it's one of the best platform for games. 
 

I was reading the Valve employee handbook and it's very interesting how they work on games. They ONLY work on a title when they feel inspired about it. That's why HL3 is taking forever.

BTW, Valve didn't make Counter-Strike. It was a fan made mod that got turned into a game. Reminds me I need to pick up CS:G.O. Heard nothing but great things about it. Still the best FPS that takes the most skill. 
 
Valve is not making a new console. It takes a ton of money and people to do R&D and build a console, and 1st party games to support it. Microsoft had more people working on building Kinect than there are people than working at Valve in total.

Valve plans on making PC hardware. A controller peripheral probably, they are planing on competing with people like Razer and Logitech, not MS and Sony. Gabe has been talking about wearable controllers for years now too

And for everyone's information, the only major IP at Valve themselves have created is Half Life.

I love Valve, but them entering the console market would be a stupid, stupid move
 
Last edited:
As long as they don't go the NEO GEO route....

I think its about time Sega drops thier hat in console game again, also.
 
If anything I see them making a ONLIVE type of thing with steam. That would work because they would have the entire library of games streaming over the interwebs. They just need to make a cheap box and controller.
 
Speculation about Valve’s entry into the hardware market has been flying since March, when rumors suggested Valve was working on a Steam Box console.

If it's a Steam Box, it'll basically be an inexpensive PC optimized to run PC games off Steam (meaning PC'ers would also be able to play with Steam Box'ers). So it wouldn't be a whole new platform like PS or Xbox that Valve would have to build up from scratch.
 
If it's a Steam Box, it'll basically be an inexpensive PC optimized to run PC games off Steam (meaning PC'ers would also be able to play with Steam Box'ers). So it wouldn't be a whole new platform like PS or Xbox that Valve would have to build up from scratch.

If thats the case, I wonder if one would be able to mod the game. If so, this could be HUGE.
 
Valve plans on making PC hardware. A controller peripheral probably, they are planing on competing with people like Razer and Logitech, not MS and Sony.

i'm thinking this, and that it would be an enormous leap to assume hardware implies, above all else, new game console.
 
Back
Top Bottom