Valve today announced plans for “Steam Machines,” which will be hardware made by multiple companies all running SteamOS and designed to let people play PC games on a living room TV.
Valve will also be making its own Steam Machine, but first it wants to hear from you. To do so, the Bellevue game company is giving away prototypes of its hardware to 300 lucky Steam users.
“We’re conducting a beta of the overall Steam living-room experience, so we needed to build prototype hardware on which to run tests,” Valve wrote. “At Valve we always rely on real-world testing as part of our design process. The specific machine we’re testing is designed for users who want the most control possible over their hardware. Other boxes will optimize for size, price, quietness, or other factors.”
You’ll have to complete a few achievements within the Steam community and eventually land on a list of eligible beta testers. Valve will select the 300 after the Oct. 25 deadline.
First, you must join the Steam Universe community group and agree to the Steam Hardware Beta Terms and Conditions. Then, make 10 Steam friends, create a public Steam Community profile and finally play a game using a gamepad in Big Picture mode.
Once completed, you’ll receive a special badge. You don’t need to complete the tasks in any specific order, but must do so before Oct. 25. About 30 testers will be chosen based on their past participation and community contributions, but the remaining 270 prototypes will be given away at random.
Valve said beta testers will be able to hack the box completely, which means they can run another operating system or change the hardware, for example.
Beta testers can use a mouse, keyboard or gamepad with the prototype. But Valve hinted that they are working on other forms of controllers and added that “we have some more to say very soon on the topic of input.” Valve is making three announcements this week regarding its plans for PC gaming in the living room, with final announcement coming at 10 A.M. PST on Friday.
For more info, head to Valve’s FAQ.
