Valve to put Steam hardware into beta next year?

Valve's Jeri Ellsworth has said that the company wants to make Steam games more playable in the lounge room — and soon.

Valve's Big Picture Mode has been a huge move for the company into territory that is normally the domain of the consoles. It's also been no secret that the company has a hardware division that's been toiling away in the sort of long-term project focus that Valve is famous for.

Valve employee Jeri Ellsworth spoke to Engadget about the company's one-year goal: "To make Steam games more fun to play in your living room."

Ellsworth's hardware team is apparently working in tandem with the Big Picture Mode to create control solutions — basically, looking at new ways to play games that move away from the keyboard/mouse combo, which can be hard to work into a lounge room situation.

Engadget reported that nothing is off the table from "Phantom Lapboard-esque solutions to hybrid controllers", and Ellsworth's team hopes to have hardware in beta testing sometime in 2013.

Can Valve take on the established consoles and make Steam gaming a viable couch activity? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.