After three long years, budget gamers were waiting for the product of the joint venture of Valve and Google, playing PC games via Steam client on ChromeOS or more specifically, Steam For Chromebook is LIVE!

In time when Google kickstarted the BETA of Google Play Games, the recent BETA of ChromeOS version 108.0.5359.24 does include an early version of Steam For Chromebook and this build was constructed based on the feedback received on the Alpha that went live early this year.

Google (via Product Manager for Chrome Zach Alcorn) said that the functionality takes Intel 11th-gen Core i5 chips with Intel's Iris Xe graphics as minimum but, there is support for Intel's latest 12th-gen chips and extends support to Team Red. 

Debuting on the platform and starting with this BETA, Chromebook with processors Ryzen 5000 C-Series CPUs of AMD are also compatible.

For the time being, the following Chromebooks are the one that can run the Steam For Chromebook beta and includes:

  • Acer Chromebook 514 (CB514-1W)
  • Acer Chromebook 515 (CB515-1W)
  • Acer Chromebook 516 GE
  • Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (CP514-3H, CP514-3HH, CP514-3WH)
  • Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W)
  • Acer Chromebook Spin 714 (CP714-1WN)
  • Acer Chromebook Vero 514
  • Asus Chromebook CX9 (CX9400)
  • Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5500)
  • Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5601)
  • Asus Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip
  • Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition
  • HP Elite c640 14 inch G3 Chromebook
  • HP Elite c645 G2 Chromebook
  • HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook
  • HP Pro c640 G2 Chromebook
  • Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook 16
  • Lenovo 5i-14 Chromebook
  • Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook 14
  • Lenovo ThinkPad C14

As for the games, Google acknowledged that more works needs to be done but currently, Steam For Chromebooks supports 50 games and basically are relying on the Proton runtime (the software that interprets Windows codes for Linux-based OS by Valve), but for now, don’t expect games that relies and requires BattlEye and Easy Anti-Cheat could as the anti-cheats are not implemented yet.

Finally, DirectX 12 and Vulkan games, meanwhile, have reduced CPU overhead now. That's meant to boost battery life when gaming, even though PC gamers are used to needing a power source for serious gaming.

For the course of this BETA, there will be more improvement and for keeping a list of what has already worked so far, Google listed the changelog here.