The 2022 Google for Games Developer Summit is underway and according to a rather brief announcement by the search giant, Steam for Chrome OS is an actual thing. Basically, it's being released in ‘Alpha' form which means that it's not quite ready for prime-time but rather, as the name of the summit suggests, targeted towards developers.
According to 9to5Google, Google said the following:
“Steam Alpha just launched, making this longtime PC game store available on select Chromebooks for users to try.”
And that is pretty much it. As we previously covered, Steam for Chrome OS will only be compatible with a select number of Chromebooks that have at least an Intel i5 or i7 (11th Gen), along with at least 7GB of RAM. This means that the rather heroic performing Chromebook Duet (and the vast majority of other Chromebooks) you've had for the past 18 months will not be able to run the Steam for Chrome OS alpha. It's hoped that as Google refines the product the system requirements will be eased, but there's no telling when or if this might happen.
Google has directed would-be users to a community post on its Chromebook forums, but it's not showing at the current time. Because it is an ‘Alpha' release, it's likely to feature bugs and glitches galore so it might be worth waiting for a public beta before getting your feet wet.
