The rumored “Steam Box” is now a reality…Sort of. Valve revealed the 2nd of three announcements for the “Steam Universe” earlier today- Steam Machines.

Earlier today, Valve revealed the 2nd of their three “Steam Universe” announcements to be the “Steam Machines”. The Steam Machines are essentially customized home-entertainment PC’s created by several different manufacturers; several different models will be available from each manufacturer starting in 2014. The “Steam Box” is still technically a thing; as part of the announcement, 300 prototypes created by Valve will be given away as part of a very closed Beta. In order to be eligible for a chance to receive a prototype, entrants need to partake in the “Hardware Beta Eligibility Quest”:

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 eligibility

1. Join the Steam Universe community group
2. Agree to the Steam Hardware Beta Terms and Conditions
3. 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

Those who do receive Steam Machines are free to experiment with them as they please; install different OS’s, test keyboard-and-mouse support over controller-support, run hardware tests- Valve is also allowing lucky prototype users to share their experience over social media. Valve claims that “hundreds” of games are already compatible with SteamOS, with the rest of the 3,000+ game library coming over the course of next year.

Those interested in completing the Hardware Beta Eligibility Quest have until Oct. 25, as entries will be locked the following day. The next announcement is on Friday; as the “circle” represents SteamOS, it is possible that the final announcement deals with sharing, or even remote downloading via the Steam mobile app.

Source: Valve
Image courtesy of Valve