Steam’s highly anticipated Big Picture Mode, which allows you to easily use the program on your big screen will begin its public beta today (and will be coming soon to Mac users). You will be able to use your traditional keyboard & mouse if you like, but the sole reason this mode exists is because they customized it with a controller in mind.

Everything about Steam that you know and love has been modified to work on the controller such as navigating the menus, store, community, web browser and the on-screen keyboard they are calling Lotus. What is Lotus? Well, think of it as the anti-QWERTY as it will allow users to use the left analog stick to highlight a leaf looking icon that has each word mapped to the controller layout and you press away to the corresponding letters.

I can’t recall how long it usually takes me to write a message on PSN or XBL using the keyboard so I am going to be very interested to see if Lotus really works because that could be a huge deal going forward for Valve if the purposed “Steam Box” plans ever become a reality.

Via: Giant Bomb