Steam for Chrome OS Officially Arrives for 7 Chromebooks as Alpha Release
Google has officially released an alpha build of Steam for a select group of Chromebooks.
The company today published a support document about the Steam alpha build after teasing the release last week. Unfortunately, the software will only be available for seven models, or what Google described as "a small set of recent Chromebooks." They include:
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
In addition, the Steam alpha build will only run on Chromebooks configured with Intel’s Iris Xe integrated graphics, an 11th Generation Core i5 or i7 processor, and at least 8GB of RAM. “Because many games have high performance demands, we’ve focused our efforts thus far on a set of devices where more games can run well,” the company said.
“Configurations of these devices with an i3 CPU or 4GB of RAM are not supported,” Google added. “Some Chromebooks lack the necessary hardware to provide a quality experience for Steam games, and thus are unlikely to be supported.” So if you run a lower-end Chromebook, you're out of luck.
Google also released instructions on how eligible users can try out the Steam build, which involves switching to the Dev channel for their Chromebook’s operating system.
“Beginning with Chrome OS 14583.0.0, the Dev channel will include an early, alpha-quality version of Steam on Chrome OS,” the company said. However, users should expect to encounter bugs, missing features, and potential crashes, so it’s best to avoid running the Steam alpha build on Chromebooks devoted to important work.
The other limitation is how not every game may run over the
Read more on pcmag.com
