Maybe the Oculus Rift and Google Glasses and the next Kinect and whatever Valve cooks up will be awesome.

FORBES: Move up http://i.forbesimg.com t Move down

Doug Suttles, the chief operating officer for exploration and production at BP, said it had not yet given up on engaging the valve, but was considering other possible solutions.

BBC: Growing concerns over Gulf of Mexico oil leak

He said that one of the problems with fen-phen, a diet drug combo that wound up causing heart-valve problems, was that doctors were too eager to hand them out.

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We even saw some third-parties stepping up with their own versions of Valve's initiative.

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The goal is to tighten up or otherwise improve the faulty valve, called the esophageal sphincter, that lets acid reflux back into the esophagus.

FORBES: Health

And then Valve's internal hardware prototypes popped up, confirming what we've heard murmurs of for months: the company's head down on creating a PC for your living room.

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Traditional heartburn surgery involves tiny incisions in the abdomen, through which surgical tools are inserted and a new valve is created that prevents stomach contents from rising up.

WSJ: New Surgical Option for Heartburn

The job ad acknowledges Valve's debt to the personal computer but said the firm was trying to speed up the pace of innovation by "jumping in" itself.

BBC: Game maker Valve Software recruits hardware experts

In a recent Reddit AMA he opened up about his feelings surrounding The WarZ, a game with such misleading product descriptions and questionable development that Valve felt compelled to pull it from Steam against an unstoppable wave of internet rage.

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Even if the Steambox initiative fizzles, there's always the massive ongoing success of Steam's digital storefront to fall back on. 2013 may be the year that Valve attacks, but it's not just the company's internal hardware projects that are up for the challenge.

ENGADGET: 2013: The year that Valve attacks HD