Select Chromebooks Get Alpha Version of Steam

Google and Valve Software have officially launched an alpha version of the Steam gaming platform for Chome OS. For now, Steam alpha is available only on seven machines from various PC makers, but its very availability indicates that Google wants Chrome OS-based PCs to offer gaming capabilities.

"I am very excited to share that today we are releasing an early, alpha-quality version of Steam on Chrome OS in the Dev channel for a small set of recent Chromebooks," a statement by Google's Chrome OS gaming team reads. "We are so excited to be working with Valve to bring their expansive library of games to Chrome OS, and we hope you enjoy what we have built so far!"

Right now, Steam alpha for Chrome OS can be enabled in the Dev channel on Chromebooks (i.e., owners need to switch their PCs to the Dev channel version of Chrome OS) based on Intel's 11th Generation Core i5/i7 'Tiger Lake' processors with Iris Xe Graphics G7 (80 or 96 EUs) and equipped with at least 8GB of memory. Google and Valve obviously want to provide some kind of minimum acceptable gaming experience, which is why 11th Gen Core i3 CPUs with Xe-LP-based UHD Graphics (32 or 48 EUs) are not supported.

For now, Steam alpha works on the following Chromebooks:

  • Acer Chromebook 514 (CB514-1W)
  • Acer Chromebook 515 (CB515-1W)
  • Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W)
  • ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5500)
  • ASUS Chromebook CX9 (CX9400)
  • HP Pro c640 G2 Chromebook
Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.