After the obligatory (partial) denial from Valve who claim no such hardware would be shipping anytime soon (like Half-Life 3!) and some patented controller designs, they now have job listings which point towards new hardware development.
Most of the current listings related to software development and managing the Steam service but two stand out. Here’s the listing for an Electronics Engineer:
Hardware, hardware, hardware. Valve has admitted to testing out biometric feedback via hardware and building “boxes” to test “Steam Big Picture Mode UI” but like anything related to the Half-Life franchise, they’ve remained coy at the idea of developing a console-like device.
Duties:
Work with the hardware team to conceive, design, evaluate, and produce new types of input, output, and platform hardware
A console - that multiple manufactures could build through licensing - that offers the digital services of Steam and Origin could be the future. With the push toward digital content and talk from developers of a digital future, this could be it. A low-cost PC that works with TV sets and can play all the best games… Sounds like a formula for success if there’s any truth to this, especially if it launches with Half-Life 3 supports features like cross-platform play which Valve brought with Portal 2 on Steam and PS3.
Unrelated, they’re also looking for a pyschologist to help with game development!
Would an open source gaming console that plays PC games interest you?
-
Follow me on Twitter @rob_keyes.
Source: Valve
