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 Steam software. That said, Google has already tested 50 games that do work. The titles include Hades, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Tekken 7, Fallout 4, and Disco Elysium, among others. 

“Chrome OS will typically run the Linux version of a game if it exists,” the company added. In other cases, users can run the Windows-based versions by installing Steam Play, which uses Valve’s Proton compatibility layer to run Windows software.

If you do try the Steam alpha build, Google is hoping you’ll send in feedback about the experience. Its support page also has a running list of known issues with the Steam build.