Valve would consider hardware development to drive innovation

Valve's Gabe Newell has suggested that the company may begin its own hardware development in the future, as this may be the only way for it to push innovation in its games. In an interview with Penny Arcade, Newell explained that, while he would rather use hardware from other manufacturers, he would definitely consider developing hardware inside the company if necessary. "If we have to sell hardware we will," he noted. "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." He added, "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." However, he concluded, "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."