A recent job listing on Valve's website confirms what the Half-Life developer has been discussing for the past few months: they're making hardware.
"Valve is traditionally a software company," the listing for an Industrial Designer position reads. "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."
This is an interesting perspective, and it's fascinating to hear this kind of candid language from a company as notable as Valve. This past April, Valve was looking for hardware engineers to "invent whole new gaming experiences."
But this still doesn't mean you'll be seeing the Valve Box 360 anytime soon: the company told Kotaku earlier this year that it had no plans to make game consoles. Valve has also expressed a great deal of interest in wearable computers.
Job Postings [Valve via CVG]