Steam Big Picture mode enters beta next month

Steam’s Big Picture mode for televisions will be in the hands of users sometime next month, Valve has announced.

Valve designer Greg Coomer revealed in an interview with GTTV that a beta for the application will arrive sometime in September.

"In early September you’ll be able to hop into a beta, click a button, and see Steam reformatted for your TV and usable with a PC game controller, or a mouse and keyboard if you wanna play that way," explained Coomer.

"Everything will be there, so you don’t have to give up your favorite stuff once you walk from the den to the living room."

Valve founder Gabe Newell added that the company hopes hardware vendors will see Big Picture mode as a ‘useful tool’ to deliver hardware into living rooms.

The company also announced that their new indie game examination initiative Steam Greenlight will go live next Thursday, August 30th. The system will offer users an opportunity to vote on which games make it onto Steam.