Gaming-focused Chromebooks work

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Google’s ambitions for gaming-focused Chromebooks may be close to reality. After years of steam teasing Chrome OS and even Nvidia’s beta support for DLSS and ray tracing on arm-based Chromebooks, references to Chromebooks for new games have now been spotted in Chrome OS betas.

Google revealed a couple of years ago that it was working on Steam support for Chromebooks, but we’ve heard very little since then.

9to5Google reports that three possible gaming Chromebooks have been spotted, all with RGB keyboards. The post speculates that both HP and Lenovo could test Chromebooks for gaming, based on employee contributions to Chrome OS code. The third mysterious device, codenamed Ripple, appears to be a tablet with a detachable keyboard.

A new flag has been discovered in Chrome OS that enables RGB keyboard support, which is common on gaming laptops from Razer and many other OEMs. While the flag could just be additional support for existing USB keyboards, 9to5Google believes this Chrome OS RGB support has been added specifically for unreleased Chromebooks. RGB keyboards are nothing without games, and Steam will be key if gaming Chromebooks are to become a reality.

Of course Chromebooks for gaming will need RGB

In lieu of compelling alternatives, Valve has continued to announce Steam Deck, a portable Linux gaming console that begins shipping in late February. Steam Deck can make gaming on Linux more popular than it is today, thanks in large part to Valve’s Proton technology. Proton is a compatibility layer that allows Steam to run Windows games on Linux, and the list of supported games is growing.

Proton now also supports two of the most popular anti-cheat systems, Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) and BattlEye. The developers still need to test and confirm that their games work with Proton anti-cheat support, but Steam Deck and any potential Chromebooks can unlock games for popular titles like Fortnite, Apex Legends, Destiny 2, Halo Infinite, and PUBG.

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