Google and Valve Partner up to Bring Steam to Chromebooks—Here's the Scoop

Google and Valve have been working to bring a solid Steam build to Chromebooks for several months, and they just crossed a significant milestone. 

Google just announced that Steam for Chromebooks has passed alpha with flying colors and is now onto the beta release. This version broadly expands its capabilities, bringing plenty of new features to the table. 

As for availability, this version of Steam is no longer tied to the ChromeOS dev channel, allowing anyone with the ChromeOS beta build to download and use the service to download and play their favorite games. The release also supports devices with AMD Ryzen 5000 C-series chips and Intel 12th Gen Core CPUs. 

The minimum CPU requirement has been lowered to Intel i3 / AMD Ryzen 3, which Google says "more than triples" the number of supported devices. Steam support has also been built into many recently-released cloud gaming Chromebooks, though the company recommends 16GB of RAM and an i5 / Ryzen 5 or higher CPU for the best local gaming experience. 

Increased compatibility is just the beginning here. The ChromeOS Steam beta also adds support for major graphics libraries like DirectX 12 and Volkan 1.3 and features an improved scaling system for better integration with QHD and UHD external displays. 

To that end, Google has added 50 new titles to a list of Steam games they recommend as being perfect for playing on Chromebooks, including icons like The Witcher 3, Hades, and Portal 2. 

Users can set up this beta version of Steam by following the instructions provided here.