Valve may enter the gaming hardware race
Valve, the company almost single handedly keeping PC gaming alive, are considering moving into the hardware market if innovation in the computer gaming hardware sector fails to meet their lofty ambitions.
Gabe Newell, co-founder of the company behind Half Life, Portal and the Steam games distribution platform, has expressed frustration with the lack of momentum in the PC hardware sector, which he believes is still causing too high a barrier of entry for potential gamers.
“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.”
Could Valve hold their own as both a software developer and hardware manufacturer? They’ve certainly got the games with Team Fortress, Half Life and Portal, and have an excellent dialogue with their loyal community of Steam users. Such moves however could lead to game exclusives though, and no-one wants to be locked out of Valve’s future AAA games.
Still, if they put the same attention to detail into their hardware as they do their download platform and games, we’d be very exited indeed.
Via: Penny Arcade
