Some time ago, Valve has announced that the Steam Universe would be expanding in 2014 and promised three revelations, as they are working on even more ways to connect the dots for customers who want Steam in the living-room. Two are already out of the bag and as the time of writing, we will have to wait 26 hours to find out more about the third one, but what we already know is that a revolution is on its way.

Steam OS and Steam Machines are words that will probably become popular in a near future, for the new Valve Linux-based free operating system built around Steam itself, designed for the TV and the living room, will provide seamless access to over 2 000 titles, allowing users to stream games from their main PC or Mac to the living room TV.

** UPDATE **

We know now that the third revelation that Valve has promised is the Steam Controller, a new way to play the entire Steam library from the sofa. This gamepad is a new kind of input technology that will work with all the games on Steam: past, present, and future, featuring a touch screen, dual trackpads and much more. Check out the first demonstration video:

As for the Steam Machines, a powerful new category of living-room hardware running SteamOS is coming our way, but Valve wants to test the prototype first, so this year they will be shipping just 300 of these boxes to Steam users for testing, free of charge. The good news is that you can make yourself eligible to get one in the following way:

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