Valve to ship beta Steam Machines this week, SteamOS also available

300 beta testers will get their hands on the Valve-produced Steam Box and its new touch-based controller.

Valve has announced up to 300 selected Steam Machine beta testers will be notified at 2pm PDT today and will receive the devices later this week.

The living room PCs will ship this Friday, along with the new haptic feedback controller designed alongside the console. Testers will also receive an exclusive badge for their Steam Community profile identifying them as a beta participant.

However, only US residents are eligible for the testing period as a result of what Valve describes as regulatory hurdles”.

"It means we can’t collect beta feedback from Steam customers worldwide, which is pretty unfortunate," said a Valve spokesperson.

"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."

Further announcements surrounding the Steam Machines are expected at next year’s CES show in January, while the devices are set to go on sale later on in 2014.

Valve also confirmed that its SteamOS will be available to all users of the digital games platform when the machines ship out this Friday.