Forget the Steam Deck – gaming Chromebooks with Steam support could be coming soon

Pixelbook Go Chromebook with Steam on screen

(Image credit: Hereafter / Valve)

Y'all may not think of the humble Chromebook as a gaming device, simply that could modify, as it looks similar official support for Steam in Chrome Bone is coming soon.

According to a study by Android Police force, official Steam support in Chrome Bone, the operating system Chromebooks use, could be coming soon. Codenamed 'Borealis', information technology seems a beta version could exist included in Chrome Os 98.0.4736.0, which volition be made available as an early on 'Canary' version for testing imminently.

It also looks like Proton support will exist included. This is pretty exciting, as it's the tool Valve uses to permit Windows games to run in Linux. This is how Valve's handheld Steam Deck console, which runs on Linux, will be able to access and play a huge library of Windows games.

With Proton back up in Chrome OS (which is too based on Linux), Chromebook owners could take access to almost any Windows game in their library. It appears that Google is also including a fashion for people to provide feedback well-nigh how well a game runs in Proton, allowing both Google and Valve to hopefully fix any bug.

Analysis: Gaming Chromebooks?

The information unearthed by Android Police force in source code for the upcoming update to Chrome Bone makes information technology look likely that Steam support is indeed coming to Chromebooks – admitting in beta form for the time being.

This is exciting news, every bit nosotros e'er similar to see new ways to play our games. Proton support in item is welcome, as it should mean Chromebook gamers – a market nosotros'd have never thought really existed before at present – have access to a broad range of games, not but titles that have been built for Linux.

Still, at that place are still hardware limitations to take into account. One of the near appealing things about the all-time Chromebooks are that many of them are very affordable, with long battery lives. Both of these aspects are achieved past having low-powered hardware. That's slap-up for prolonging battery lives and keeping prices low, but it's not very good when it comes to gaming.

And so, fifty-fifty with Steam support, budget Chromebooks are going to struggle playing many games. Nonetheless, Steam has a huge range of old games, too as indie titles, which could run fine. There are also premium Chromebooks out in that location with specifications that rival the best laptops, and many of these will do a decent job at running games – with a flake of tweaking, of grade.

So, while it may non magically plow your cheap Chromebook into a gaming laptop, there's huge potential here for bringing some bright older and indie games to a whole new marketplace. It should as well make the wait for the delayed launch of the Steam Deck a scrap easier.

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Senior Computing editor

Matt (Twitter) is TechRadar's Senior Calculating editor. Having written for a number of publications such as PC Plus, PC Format, T3 and Linux Format, at that place's no attribute of engineering science that Matt isn't passionate well-nigh, peculiarly calculating and PC gaming. If yous're encountering a problem or demand some advice with your PC or Mac, drop him a line on Twitter.