As we expected after SteamOS was announced, there isn’t just going to be one Steam Box on the market, there’s going to be dozens of Steam Machines manufactured by multiple partners. Valve made Steam Machines official today, as a very non-surprising announcement and promises that it will allow us to choose the hardware that makes sense for our needs. Valve is aiming for those multiple Steam Machines to hit the market by 2014, all of which will run SteamOS.
But before all that happens, Valve has a prototype “that’s optimized for gaming, for the living room, and for Steam.” 300 of those boxes will be shipped to Steam users, free of charge for testing purposes. The Steam Box will also be completely upgradeable and open.
To participate in the Steam Box beta, you must do the following:
- Before October 25, log in to Steam and then visit your quest page to track your current status towards beta test eligibility
- Join the Steam Universe community group
- Agree to the Steam Hardware Beta Terms and Conditions
- Make 10 Steam friends (if you haven’t already)
- Create a public Steam Community profile (if you haven’t already)
- Play a game using a gamepad in Big Picture mode
Even if you complete all the steps however, that doesn’t guarantee you a box – you’ll still be selected from a pool of people that have all been awarded a special badge for completing those steps. The list will be locked down on October 25.
Specs and images on the prototype box weren’t revealed, but Valve promised that it’ll be coming soon. For those that are experienced PC gamers, what Steam is doing on the hardware front is hardly revolutionary. In fact, since SteamOS will be available for free, you could build your own Steam Machine. At the end of the day, it’s just a PC built to whatever specs you want running SteamOS. What will be interesting however is how affordable these Steam Machines are versus building your own PC and if that helps introduce new gamers to Steam’s market.
Source: Steam
