In March, the Internet went ballistic after a report claimed that Valve was working on a "Steam Box", a PC-based gaming hardware product that would be based on Valve"s Steam software. While the first report claimed Valve might show off the product at E3 this June, Valve quickly denied that, saying, "All of that is stuff that we"re working on, but it"s a long way from Valve shipping any sort of hardware."
While Valve may not be launching a "Steam Box" anytime soon, a new job listing at Valve"s website does indeed confirm that the company is looking to get into the gaming hardware business. The Electronics Engineer job listing states:
For years, Valve has been all about writing software that provides great gameplay experiences. 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.
The job listing adds that whomever is hired will be tasked with joining Valve"s hardware team "to conceive, design, evaluate, and produce new types of input, output, and platform hardware."
Valve"s possible entry into the gaming hardware space could serve as some major competition to Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony if Valve plays its card right. Naturally, we will stay on top of this story.