An Alpha Version of Steam is Coming Soon to Select Chromebooks

We’ve known for quite some time that Google had been working with Valve to bring Steam on Chrome OS, and an alpha version was announced yesterday at the Google for Games Developer Summit (via 9to5Google). Google said that the alpha would be available “soon” on select Chromebooks, but details are still scarce.

“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,” Google said yesterday.

Most Chromebooks usually come with entry-level specs, and there’s probably going to be a very limited number of games that can run Steam games properly. Chrome OS is also a Linux-based OS, which could limit the type of games Chromebook users will have access to.

Google does seem to see a potential for gaming on Chromebooks, especially now that Android games are available on Chrome OS. According to Google, Android app usage saw a 50% year-over-year increase on Chromebooks, with most of this growth coming from Android games.

Chrome OS started its life as a very locked down platform, and it’s interesting to see it becoming more and more open with the Google Play Store and soon, the biggest digital game distribution platform with Steam. Windows will always remain the best platform for PC gaming, but it will be interesting to see if Steam on Chrome OS leads Chromebook manufacturers to release more powerful devices in the future.