Back in January 2020, Google revealed that they were working on bringing support for Steam to Chrome OS. After more than 2 years, Google will soon be testing an alpha-quality version of Steam on Chrome OS in the Dev channel. The test will be available only for select Chromebooks to begin with.
Google has been working with Valve to bring the popular Steam game library to Chrome OS under a project named “Borealis”. After remaining quiet for more than 2 years since its announcement, Google is releasing now an early version of Steam on the Dev channel of Chrome OS.
The test, however, is only limited to a small set of Chromebooks. While Google hasn’t mentioned the specifications, it appears that the Chromebooks need to have at least an Intel Core i5 or a Core i7 processor and a minimum of 7GB of RAM.
For now, this list of devices include:
- 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
The timing of Google releasing an alpha version of Steam isn’t surprising considering that Valve has been working on their ProtonDB software for many years now. ProtonDB is a tool released by Valve that enables Windows-compatible games to run directly in Linux. ProtonDB is particularly being used right now to run games on Valve’s Steam deck gaming console. Since Chrome OS is based on Linux, it should have similar challenges to running games from the Steam library.
We can expect more details about Steam on Chrome OS to be revealed soon by Google.