Google to end Steam Support for Chromebooks
A few weeks ago I stumbled across an article about Google ending support for Steam on the Chromebook. A few years ago this would have made me really upset, but quite frankly, it isn’t a big deal and possibly one of the best things they’ve decided.
Sure, I’ve posted a few articles in the past about how you can now play PC games locally on your Chromebook thanks to Steam. I was also really excited by the thought of playing PC games locally on my Chromebook. I even installed a few games locally, and they worked.
However, the biggest issue with Steam On ChromeOS is that so many games were not supported. Also, I’ve written before about for Steam or any local gaming on a Chromebook would require a Dedicated Graphics Card. This doesn’t just cost money, it causes other concerns, that I’d rather do without.
I like Chromebooks just as they are
One of the first things that attracted me to my first-ever Chromebook was how quiet it was. Before ChromeOS, all of my laptops ran on Microsoft Windows, and whenever you pushed your laptop, it would sound like it was about to take off.
That annoying noise from the fan cooling the internals was not only frustrating, it made using your laptop hot, and that’s not nice, especially if you’ve got it on your lap.
My Pixelbook Go does not make a sound, and yes, it can get hot when used for demanding tasks, its never been uncomfortable to use. My Asus CX5 Chromebook, which is more powerful, can get noisy and hot when you demand too much from it. This was seen almost instantly when it came to installing games locally on Steam and during play.
Sure, you might think this isn’t a big issue, but for me, it took away something that I initially loved about the Chromebook. That was computing on a laptop without any annoying fan noise and the heat that comes with it.
Local Gaming is so last year
Another reason why I’m not overly fussed about Google quitting support for Steam on 01 January 2026, is that local gaming isn’t where we are now. Take away the fact we’re talking about the Chromebook. If I were to go out and buy a Windows desktop PC capable of decent local gaming, I’d easily have to spend £1,500 at an absolute minimum. This may be great for the first six months, but games continually improve and need more processing power, and within two years, you’ve got a PC you spent a lot of money on that is only capable of running games previously released, and would simply be unable to handle the latest PC games.
This essentially means, buying a PC for local gaming is simply no longer worth it when it comes to the money you have to spend. This is why I was amazingly blown away by how gaming was so great on a Chromebook when running Nvidia GeForce Now.
I started using Nvidia GeForce Now when it was first released, so I’ve got a founders membership, which costs me just £4.99 per month. You can imagine how many months I’d have to have access to GeForce Now before I even got to spending £1,500. Don’t get me wrong, I use the basic GeForce Now package, but for the games I play, it works just fine. If you do prefer games that require more power, then you’ll find plenty of packages available at Nvidia GeForce Now.
The Chromebook needs to offer the best in cloud computing
Now that Google has decided to end support for Steam on Chromebooks. It allows them to put their resources into other projects, which have a much better outcome for ChromeOS. The whole reason why the Chromebook was launched was to take advantage of the cloud. It’s the first computer that has been purposely built to take advantage of the internet.
That gives it a huge advantage over computers running on Microsoft Windows, where they continually have to ensure all the different drivers for all the different hardware attachments work. This is what makes Microsoft such an awful operating system to use.
If Google concentrate on the initial reason for creating ChromeOS, which is to concentrate on cloud computing, we’ll hopefully see great Chromebooks released that excel at cloud computing. I’d rather this than manufacturers releasing Chromebooks with Dedicated graphics cards, which would cost a fortune, all just to please people who want to game locally.
The power is in the cloud
Google decided a few years ago to stop their own cloud gaming platform Stadia. Personally, again, that really did not phase me because Nvidia GeForce Now is without question the best gaming platform for the Chromebook. Providing you’ve a good internet connection, you’ll get much more pleasure out of playing games on GeForce Now, than you’d ever get from local gaming.
I see a future, where practically everything is done in the cloud. We’re not far away from that now, but there are still some things I’d still do locally. Such as Video Editing, which just isn’t something that can be done in the cloud at the moment professionally. That being said, I’m sure we’ll get to a time when this is possible.
