When you talk about a Chromebook, you might not immediately think of games. But Google is gradually ensuring that you can do that, for example via the well-known game platform Steam. This is how you use Steam – for now – on your Chromebook.
It is now possible for several months. At the end of March, Google released an update to the Chrome OS, via the developer channel, that makes it possible to install Steam on your Chromebook. It is an alpha-quality version of Steam, which can be used on a small number of recently released Chromebook models.
Why does Google choose Steam now? That makes a lot of sense: Steam is the largest PC platform where gamers can buy, update and manage games. Chances are, there are many people out there with an impressive Steam library who might just ignore a Chromebook right now because they can’t game on it.
That is now gradually changing. The steps are small. Steam offers access to thousands of games, but as it stands on Chrome OS, you get access to less than fifty games. This includes titles such as Celeste, Disco Elysium, Portal 2, Tekken 7, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Google emphasizes on its blog post that you should not get too enthusiastic about the current state of affairs. Since it is an alpha version, things can break in the meantime.
What do you need for Steam on Chromebook?
To install Steam on a Chromebook, you obviously need a modern Chromebook. Google currently supports the models below.
- 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
- Lenovo 5i-14 Chromebook
The Chromebooks must have at least an 11th generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, with an Iris Xe card for the graphics and 8 GB of RAM. It is also better for the time being that you do not set the screen resolution higher than 1080p.
In addition, it is important that you manually transfer your Chromebook to the Dev Channel (developer mode). All you really need to do is download an update and reboot the system.
If you then want to return to the normal version of Chrome, then look for the function power wash within the settings and set up the device as if it were a new Chromebook. You can read more about that on this support page.
Want to get more out of your Chromebook? Then we recommend this one free online course Working from home on Chromebook at.
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