Steam on Chromebook is now a reality, how do I access it?

news hardware Steam on Chromebook is now a reality, how do I access it?

In general, when you decide to buy a Chromebook-type laptop, the goal is not to pay a lot and have access to fairly focused features. These machines run on ChromeOS, an operating system developed by Google and based on Chromium. Specifically, this is not the category of laptops that should be preferred for gaming.

And yet this week Google is announcing something new that could be good changing the lives of gamers who only have a Chromebook at hand : This is the arrival of a version of Steam specially designed for this type of machine.

Steam lands on Chromebook with some caveats

Announced on Thursday November 3rd on the Official ChromeOS Blog, Steam for Chromebook Beta is ready to be installed on compatible computers. As one might guess The suggestion is not at all the same as on Windows 10 or Windows 11 computers.

As is the case on the Steam deck, This version of Steam uses Valve’s Proton layer to run as many games as possible. “Chrome OS will typically run the Linux version of a game if it has one.”, explains Google in particular, while other titles benefit from compatibility thanks to Proton. To benefit from it, you need to enable Steam Play in the software.

Among the titles already supported, we can mention in particular The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Portal 2, Hades, Disco Elysium, Return of the Obra Dinn, Fallout 4, Dark Souls Remastered, DOOM or even Civilization V.

Not all Chromebooks are compatible with Steam

The other point that obviously needs to be considered concerns the specs required to run Steam for Chromebook.

“Because many games have high performance requirements, so far we have focused on a range of devices that can run more games smoothly. Currently, Steam Beta can be enabled on configurations of these Chromebooks with Core i3/Ryzen 3 or better processors and at least 8GB of RAM. »

In practice, Google has already announced thisabout twenty machines are compatible

• Acer Chromebook 514 (CB514-1W)
• Acer Chromebook 515 (CB515-1W)
• Acer Chromebook 516GE
• Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (CP514-3H, CP514-3HH, CP514-3WH)
• Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W)
• Acer Chromebook Spin 714 (CP714-1WN)
• Acer Chromebook Vero514
• ASUS Chromebook CX9 (CX9400)
• ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5500)
• ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5601)
• ASUS Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip
• Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition
• Chromebook HP Elite c640 14 lb G3
• Chromebook HP Elite c645 G2
• Chromebook HP Elite Dragonfly
• Chromebook hp pro c640 g2
• IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook 16
• Chromebook Lenovo 5i-14
• Chromebook Lenovo Flex 5i 14
• Lenovo ThinkPad C14

If you have a compatible laptop, you must follow first the procedure described here to switch to the ChromeOS “Beta Channel”. This should result in an update being downloaded.

Bath, Open Chrome and type “chrome://flags”, then enable #borealis-enabled. Then restart the computer and search for Steam in the ChromeOS launcher. You can then install it and then log into your Steam account to enjoy compatible games.