Valve Hiring Industrial Designers, All But Confirms Hardware Development

Rumors have been flying around like crazy for the last few months that Valve has been working on a Steam Box or similar hardware solution that would essentially be a dedicated gaming platform for their content delivery platform. Valve’s Big Picture program is a step towards creating a customized experience on HDTVs, allowing gamers to play PC games on the big screen without messing around with complicated settings and dealing with compatibility issues, but now, a job listing on Valve’s website for an Industrial Designer shows that they’re not afraid to jump in with the big fish and create their own dedicated gaming console:

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. Even basic input, the keyboard and mouse, haven’t really changed in any meaningful way over the years. There’s a real void in the marketplace, and opportunities to create compelling user experiences are being overlooked.

They’re looking for someone with a degree in industrial design, at least six years of experience “shipping world-class, high-tech hardware products,” and other important businessy-type skills. If you think you’ve got the chops to work for Valve, head over to the listing and toss in your application. My only hope is they call it the Steam Machine, so whenever I talk about it I can say its name like that Daft Punk song. You know, or not.

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