Google is not relenting in trying to make ChromeOS the operating system for the masses. With more and more devices arriving and more features being added on a very consistent basis, the young OS has become extremely versatile but there’s still plenty of room for more. One area, in particular that Google has placed some […]
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Google is testing Steam games for entry-level Intel Alder Lake N100/N200 Chromebooks
I’ll be honest, this shocked me a little bit. Though my review of the excellent Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook Flex 3i (ugh, that name) was quite glowing, it’s not the sort of device I’d expect to run a bunch of Steam games on any time soon. Yet, with what I’ve found in the Chromium Repositories, it […]
Continue ReadingDoes your Chromebook support Steam gaming?
Just in case you hadn’t heard, Google is getting very serious about making ChromeOS a formidable gaming platform. Despite the untimely demise of Google’s streaming game service Stadia, the folks at Alphabet have high hopes that Chromebooks can still attract a wide range of gamers from every genre and platform imaginable. It all started back […]
Continue ReadingSteam on Chromebooks is now in Beta
Earlier this year, the long-awaited Borealis project A.K.A. Steam on ChromeOS finally emerged as an Alpha test. The initial debut of the monumental collaboration between Google and Valve was restricted to only a handful of devices. It required users to move to the sometimes unstable Developer channel of ChromeOS. (You also had to have the […]
Continue ReadingSteam for Chromebooks is headed to Beta
At this point, Steam on ChromeOS has been in the works for well over two years but Google has been hesitant to announce any official timeline on when the project will fully go public. Personally, I am 100% okay with that. While I’m excited to see Steam gaming come to Chromebooks, I want to see […]
Continue ReadingSteam on ChromeOS may soon arrive for lower-powered Chromebooks
Gaming on ChromeOS has come a long way over the past few years. Android apps, Stadia, GeForce Now, Xbox Game Pass, and even Amazon’s Luna service are all readily playable right in the browser on your Chromebook. (Subscriptions often required, of course.) That’s not counting the countless websites out there that offer embedded retro and […]
Continue ReadingSteam games are now working for 12th-gen Intel Chromebooks in Alpha
Back in April, Google finally brought the long-awaited Steam gaming experience to ChromeOS. It was a day we’d been waiting for a very long time, and seeing Steam load on a Chromebook without a bunch of hoop-jumping was quite nice. That launch came with some pretty sever caveats, however, and that meant Steam gaming would […]
Continue ReadingChromebooks are getting a dedicated ‘Game Mode’ for Android games, too
It has been well over a year since we last discussed ‘Game Mode’ for Chromebooks. When we found this change originally, it was clearly tied to ‘Borealis’ – a.k.a. Steam games on ChromeOS – and that was its only use case. The purpose was clear for this previous effort: give Chromebooks the ability to push […]
Continue ReadingThe Chrome Cast 174: ChromeOS 103 features, gaming Chromebooks, and an HP Dragonfly
This week on The Chrome Cast, we begin the show by talking about gaming performance on the Steam Deck and how that can inform us a bit on what we should expect in the future from gaming-focused Chromebooks and Steam. On that note, we also found evidence of an Nvidia GPU-powered Chromebook in development, officially […]
Continue ReadingChromebooks have become the Swiss Army Knife of computing
11 years. 11 short years since the Chromebook was first released to the public. (ChromeOS was introduced in 2009 but the first consumer Chromebook actually launched in May of 2011.) In just over a decade, ChromeOS has evolved into a massive ecosystem the like so of which, not even Sundar himself could have predicted. You […]
Continue ReadingThe Chrome Cast 166: Steam Deck arrives as the Pixel Watch looms large
In this episode of The Chrome Cast, we begin by discussing a brand-new piece of hardware that is now in the office: the Steam Deck. This portable gaming device is Linux through and through, and that means things that run smoothly on it should eventually run well on Chromebooks via the ‘Borealis’ container, too. While […]
Continue ReadingHow to install Steam on an eligible Chromebook and start gaming [VIDEO]
Steam for Chromebooks is here. Well, sort of, anyway. Launched in an official Alpha capacity back in late March, the long awaited ‘Borealis’ project has finally arrived and is quite impressive for an Alpha build. Games run pretty smoothly for devices utilizing non-dedicated graphics cards and after a few technical setup steps, the whole thing […]
Continue ReadingGoogle is creating an all-in-one cloud game search feature for the new Chromebook launcher
Gaming on Chromebooks has already blown away many of the naysayers, and Google has taken the world by storm by leaning heavily into unconventional methods for making it work and even making it amazing. At first, it bolstered Android gaming by pushing developers toward respecting traditional desktop and laptop inputs like mice and keyboards (as […]
Continue ReadingThe Chrome Cast 158: Steam on Chromebooks feels a little like magic
For this episode of The Chrome Cast, there’s no escaping the gravitational pull surrounding the arrival of Steam for Chromebooks. Sure, there are only a few Chromebooks that can currently participate in the open Alpha and yes there are bugs, but the overall experience of loading up Steam on a Chromebook is one of the […]
Continue ReadingSteam for Chrome OS is finally here, details inside
After months and months of agonizing anticipation, the big day has finally arrived. After a subtle announcement at last week’s Google for Games Developer Summit, the Chrome OS team has officially released details on the highly-anticipated project that brings full support for all of your favorite Steam games to select Chrome OS devices. Before you […]
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