Test versions of Valve's Steam Machines will be sent to the 300 gamers selected to try out the new game console Friday Gaming Blend reported Wednesday.
A variety of businesses will then unveil a variety of set-top boxes according to Venture Beat.
"We've had to make the difficult decision to limit our beta to the U.S. only, because of regulatory hurdles," Valve told Cinema and Gaming. "This was not our original plan, and it means we can't collect beta feedback from Steam customers world-wide, which is pretty unfortunate. All things considered, we're sure it was the right decision, because the alternative was to delay the whole beta beyond the point when we'd be able to incorporate any feedback into the 2014 products."
The console will not be launched until 2014 when it is officially made public. Several different vendors will make the machines for this occasion. Information from the evaluation period will not have any effect on what type of device Valve selects. Further information will be available at the Consumer Electronics Show Jan. 6.
The Steam Machine is compatible with Valve's Linux SteamOS operating system, and is considered the company's initial big push to separate from Windows, the main system for playing computer games, on operating systems.
The machine has 16 gigabytes of random access memory, 12 by 12.4 by 2.9 in measurements, and a power supply of 450 watt 80 plus gold.
Game enthusiasts, and other consumers can buy games from the company's 3,000 titles for download to their personal computer. This concept is different from Sony's PlayStation products, and Microsoft's Xbox items.
Over million new users have already signed up for Valve's Stream program which provides games to 65 million users.
This means one in every ten Steam members were utilizing the program.
Numbers are also up from last year's 6 million users, which mostly came from its fall sale. This is an increase of 17 percent of involvement with a product that was already well-known.
