Steam in-home streaming beta invites going out now

Steam's in-home streaming beta is underway, as Valve announced last night that it has sent out invitations to users to try out the new service. The developer said initial invitations went to development partners only, but it appears general Steam members are also getting in.

Numerous Steam users have posted early impressions of Steam in-home streaming on Twitter and through Valve's own community page. As you would expect for a beta, some users are reporting various issues, while others say the service is running smoothly.

In a separate announcement, Valve urged users experiencing poor performance, graphical glitches, or black screens to make sure they have the latest drivers installed.

Valve began accepting sign-ups for Steam in-home streaming in November. You can sign up for a slot in the beta by joining the official group in the Steam Community.

Steam's in-home streaming service is free and is designed to allow users to play their Steam library on other machines in their house, connected to the same network. External streaming is not supported.

Last week at CES 2014, 13 third-party Steam Machines were announced from manufacturers like Alienware and Digital Storm, among others. Check out our roundup of those devices, featuring images, prices, and specification details for the systems.