Developer "Valve", known by many as the company behind Steam, the digital distribution platform, says that they are frustrated about the lack of innovation on the hardware market.

They have advertised a vacancy, which reveals that they are planning to jump into the PC hardware market...

Valve: "Even the traditional input, such as keyboard and mouse, haven't really changed in a meaningful way during the years. There is a real emptyness in the market and chances to create attractive user experiences, which have been overlooked."

Valve is looking for an Industrial Designer with at least six years of experience with marketing of "high tech hardware products". Valve has not yet announced which products it would focus on and knowing Valve they will likely announce it "when it's ready". There have been rumours over the past year that they may even try to deliver a console type device with the name of "Steam Box", however, they have openly denied this to be the case.

Valve has earned the rep for being considerate to the PC and gaming industry on the whole. If they manage to succeed in their mission, they may leave other hardware manufacturers no choice but to join in. 

“Well, if we have to sell hardware we will,” said Newell. ”We have no reason to believe we’re any good at it, it’s more we think that we need to continue to have innovation and if the only way to get these kind of projects started is by us going and developing and selling the hardware directly then that’s what we’ll do. It’s definitely not the first thought that crosses our mind; we’d rather hardware people that are good at manufacturing and distributing hardware do that. We think it’s important enough that if that’s what we end up having to do then that’s what we end up having to do.”

Do you feel that Valve can offer up anything to the PC market, a new controller perhaps?