Chromebooks to have Steam gaming service for Windows games

Search engine giant Google had launched the Chromebook laptops as a budget friendly device that was meant for the children in the classroom and had smaller displays. The user segment, the company is yet to reach is the gamers. But now it seems like the company is taking steps towards such a possibility as it is all set to launch its video game digital distribution service Steam to Chrome OS. Google has launched an alpha version of Steam on Chrome OS but only for a small set of the new Chromebooks. All the credit for the development goes to the Steam developer Valve for the Proton compatibility layer.

The Proton compatibility allows the Linux-based operating system to play Windows games on Steam. For now the Steam service is only being tested on the high end Chromebooks due to obvious reasons that it would need a higher performance for a number of games. At this point the adoption of Steam has indicated that a fully-compatible gaming Chromebook could be on cards. For the recently launched alpha version, the system requirements include 11th Gen Core i5 or Core i7 processors with Intel Iris XE Graphics and at least 8 GB RAM. This means that there are very less alpha testers with such requirements.

Fans of Chromebook who are aware of the device might have noticed that they run with integrated graphics. There are also reports that certain Chromebooks could be launched with discrete GPUs sometime in 2022. But for now none of them have it. The game that are playable on the Chromebooks include Portal 2, Hades, Dead Cells, Left 4 Dead 2 and Meier’s Civilization V. Some of the games can run with an asterix and they include The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

For Google it is a very early stage to determine how well the Chromebooks would be able to handle the games on its operating systems.

Photo Credits: Chrome unboxed