Steam for Chromebooks officially announced

If you own a powerful Chromebook, you will also be able to play PC games from Valve’s Steam platform in the future. A first alpha for ChromeOS is available now.

Steam launches on ChromeOS

Parallel to Google’s rather unsuccessful cloud gaming platform Stadia, the search engine giant apparently wants to gain a further foothold in the gaming segment. Shortly after the surprising announcement of Google Play Games for Windows, Chromebooks are now being made fit for gaming thanks to Steam support.

During the Google for Games Developer Summit 2022, they surprisingly announced a first alpha version of Steam for ChromeOS, which has also already been released, although it cannot be found on the web at the moment.

As Ron Amadeo, editor for Ars Technica, shares on Twitter, Google points to the Chromebook Community Forum for more information on Steam for Chromebooks. Rumors about Google wanting to offer Steam for ChromeOS have been persistent for about two years now. Now, apparently, it has finally happened. Back in January 2020, AndroidPolice had exclusively reported on the plan.

Steam for Chromebooks only on certain devices

To use Steam on a Chromebook, however, the device must meet certain requirements. Only Chromebooks equipped with an 11th-generation Intel Core i5 or Core i7 are compatible.

In addition, at least 8 gigabytes of RAM are a basic requirement to be able to use Steam for ChromeOS. Google will reveal more information and technical details soon.