Published 14:09 IST, January 18th 2020
Google reportedly working to bring official Steam support to Chrome OS
Official Steam support on Chrome OS could pave way for more powerful Chromebooks which would make sense now that they're breaking the $1,000 price barrier.
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Google’s Chrome OS maybe able to play games from Steam one day. In an interview with Android Police, Kan Liu, who is director of Product Management for Chrome OS said that Google is working to bring official Steam support to Chromebooks. There’s no timeline when Chrome OS will be able to support games from Steam ‘officially’ just yet, but at least, there’s hope.
Official Steam support on Chrome OS could pave way for more powerful Chromebooks which would make sense now that they're breaking the $1,000 price barrier anyway. Take the recently launched Samsung Galaxy Chromebook for instance. Because there’s no way to play high-end games on Chromebooks, even for the most high-end options, the general argument in favour of them packing potent graphics cards makes little sense. But this could change soon.
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The Chrome OS product leader also drops major hints that more powerful Chromebooks are indeed coming soon – particularly those with AMD processors inside. While creative professionals may still not be able to make best use of Chrome OS, Chromebooks may be able to break free from their general monotony once Steam officially arrives on the platform. Google is likely getting help from Valve on this, although there’s no confirmation cited in the interview.
Google’s Chrome OS was built for very specific use cases. It’s an operating system designed for safe and secure working environment, wherein everything you do, you do inside a Chrome browser – which also means, you’ll need internet most of the time to make the most of a Chromebook. You can’t install third-party apps on a Chromebook like you can on a Windows machine or even a Mac. Also, the operating system has been designed for faster boots so loading times are bare minimum.
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Over the years, Google has worked on bringing Android app support to Chrome OS. So basically, you can run Android apps on a Chromebook much like how you’d run them on an Android smartphone or tablet. There's also the Google Play Store onboard from where you download and install these apps on a Chromebook. That said, high-end gaming has still remained a no-show on a Chromebook, so Steam support would undeniably be one of the biggest draws for Chromebooks in recent years marking a switch into a new direction. Not all games may play well on a Chromebook but at least all the games that support Linux will probably play just fine once the support is live and kicking.
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14:09 IST, January 18th 2020