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Right off the bat, any game supported in Steam for Linux can be installed without any compatibility issues.

Once this is done, Steam will download to your machine, at which point you can login and start downloading games. After that, you have to enable a specific flag in Chrome and type some commands in Chrome OS Crosh terminal. You’ll need to switch your Chromebook to the dev channel, so don’t do it on a machine you trust for daily use. I didn’t have any problems installing Steam, but it’s a lot more complicated than installing it on a Windows computer. But if you have the right hardware, the Steam experience is great, as long as you keep your expectations in mind. While Steam may eventually work with low-powered devices, it’s clear that many Chromebooks simply won’t be able to cut it. These are heavy specifications for a Chromebook, but Google has specified that Steam requires a device with at least a Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM. So Google provided me with one of seven Chromebooks that can run Steam, an ASUS Chromebook CX9 with Intel’s 11th-generation Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage space. As a Chromebook fan who also loves a good game, I had to give this a shot. As you can do on Windows, Mac, and Linux, it lets you download and install games from the vast Steam catalog. The rise of cloud-based gaming services such as Google’s own Stadia has helped position, but perhaps the biggest advance in Chromebook gaming came in late March, when Google announced that Valve’s Steam platform was in an early alpha phase on Chrome OS. Most Chromebooks have low-power hardware, and the OS is built on Web technology, so playing AAA titles found on Windows isn’t an option. Keep in mind, in all these options, it's the powerful computer that does all the work, not the portable.For as long as Chrome OS has existed, gaming has been one of its most notable Achilles heels. Your not gonna get CS:GO to be fast enough to be competitive, but Civ 6 will do just fine. If you really want to stream to a portable then getting a cheap laptop around $200 and sticking XFCE on it with steam in home streaming is pretty awesome.

See for an example.įinally, though you may not want to hear it, you may be better of with something more dedicated.

If you don't have a x86 chrome book (most aren't) then you can try stuff like twerk and android streaming apps. But one of the "best" is going to utilize In home Streaming.įirst you get steam up and running on a powerful computer, then you install something like crouton, and then steam on the chrome book.įinally, login to steam on both the powerful machine, and the chrome book, and you can play the game "from" your chromebook, but it's the powerful computer that's doing all the work.
