In its second announcement teased this week, Valve has surprised pretty much no one when it revealed its plans for Steam Machines. Basically, dedicated Steam consoles that you plug into your TV. This is something they have been talking about for the past year and everyone knew was coming.
This news was pretty much what everyone expected after revealing the Steam OS on Monday. While most details are still in the dark, they have revealed a few things.
They are working with a number of hardware providers for the Steam Machines. Based on statements on the landing page, Valve feels that there is no “one size fits all” machine and it would be best to leave the choice of hardware to the people playing the games.
They have also confirmed that you will be able to build your own box and install Steam OS on it. This was mentioned at the Steam OS reveal so the reiteration of that ability is probably just comfort.
But the big news from this is that Valve is putting together a limited closed hardware beta in the coming months. On the page, they have a list of criteria that Steam users must meet to qualify for the selection process. Those requirements are listed here:
THE HARDWARE BETA ELIGIBILITY QUEST:Before October 25, log in to Steam and then visit your quest page to track your current status towards beta test eligibility1. Join the Steam Universe community group2. Agree to the Steam Hardware Beta Terms and Conditions3. Make 10 Steam friends (if you haven’t already)4. Create a public Steam Community profile (if you haven’t already)5. Play a game using a gamepad in Big Picture mode
This isn’t much for many people who are already Steam users and have spent plenty of time building friends and play profiles. But for those of us who have not spent a lot of time in Steam, this can be a chore. But the reward can be worth it.
The next reveal will come Friday at noon central time. We will let you know when it happens.
