ICYMI: Jimmy Kimmel rambles while Guillermo ups his Chromebook “game”

Just in case you missed the news, Google has been leaning heavily into gaming on ChromeOS. Even though we’re a mere two months away from the sunsetting of Google’s in-house streaming game service Stadia, the ChromeOS team has been putting in work to highlight the still-available cloud-gaming services that work perfectly on Chromebooks. These include Nvidia’s GeForce Now, Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Amazon’s Luna. (Not too sure about that last one based on the current cutbacks happening at Amazon but, whatever.) Let’s also not forget that Google just announced that Steam for ChromeOS is now in Beta and users have access to a slew of titles directly from the Steam store on supported devices.

Anyway, the announcement of Google’s commitment to cloud gaming also came with three new devices. These Chromebooks are geared specifically towards those users that are looking for a game-centric ChromeOS device on which they can take advantage of said game-streaming platforms. With the announcement came some fun promotional videos that included NFL legend Deion “Prime Time” Sanders as he got his game on playing a little Cyberpunk on his all-new gaming Chromebook. Pretty cool stuff and the big-name sponsorship does give us the impression that Google is serious about Chromebooks being taken seriously as gaming devices.

This week, gaming Chromebooks are back in the spotlight and this time, they’re going late night. In a sponsored video on Jimmy Kimmel’s official YouTube channel, Kimmel’s sidekick Guillermo opens up his Acer Chromebook 516 GE to take down Jimmy’s memoirs. The story begins with Jimmy being bullied as a child but it doesn’t take long for him to realize that Guillermo has other plans. I won’t ruin it for you. Here’s the full video for your enjoyment.

I know. It’s a bit of a shameless plug and I’m sure that Mr. Kimmel was paid well for his time. Hopefully, Guillermo was as well since he stole the scene. Still, the fact that Google is willing to spend big marketing dollars to feature the gaming capabilities of Chromebooks and these new devices gives me hope that this is the dawn of a new horizon for ChromeOS. Call me a dreamer but I am still 100% convinced that Chromebooks will eventually find parity with the OG operating systems that dominate the market.