Google’s Chrome OS platform has witnessed immense growth over the past few years. Thanks to the worldwide lockdown due to the pandemic, Chromebook sales grew four times. Chromebooks and Chrome OS aren’t considered viable alternatives to the likes of Windows and macOS, but in the past few years, Google has put a significant effort into making the OS more appealing.
And it looks like Google’s taking it a step further, as it announced yesterday in the Google for Games Developer summit that Steam Alpha “just launched” for select Chromebooks. The last time Google mentioned that Steam was coming for Chrome OS was in early 2020.
We have heard rumors about manufacturers planning to launch gaming-focused Chromebooks, so Google could be laying the foundation for the same. The keynote also goes over Cloud gaming (Stadia and GeForce Now), Android games, and a new Gaming Overlay that will be hitting Chrome OS beta users soon.
In the latest Chrome OS community post, Google said, “As you may have already heard, our team is working with Valve to bring Steam to Chrome OS. We are very excited to share that we’ll be landing an early, alpha-quality version of Steam on Chrome OS in the Dev channel for a small set of Chromebooks coming soon. Please come back to the forum for more information!”
Google didn’t announce which Chromebooks would run Steam, but thanks to the folks over 9to5Google who investigated the code changes, here are all the Chromebooks that may support Steam.
- Acer Chromebook 514 (CB514-1H)
- Acer Chromebook 515
- Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W)
- ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5500)
- ASUS Chromebook CX9 (CX9400)
- HP Pro c640 G2 Chromebook
Are you excited about Steam finally coming to Chromebooks? Let us know in the comments section below. If you’re new to Chromebooks, here are some of the reasons why you should consider them over Windows.
