Valve supports gaming using Steam on Windows, macOS, and Linux, but it could soon add a fourth operating system to that list. Google wants Steam running on Chrome OS.
As Android Police reports, during CES last week Kan Liu, Senior Director of Product Management for Chrome OS, admitted that the Chrome development team is working to bring Valve's Steam client to Chrome OS. In so doing, it would unlock thousands of games to play on Chromebooks.
It's been suggested that Google is actually working in co-operation with Valve on this project, but Liu wouldn't confirm they are. What he did confirm was that Steam would work using Chrome OS's Linux compatibility mode, so while it worked through Chrome OS it would actually be relying on Linux to function.
While official support for Steam on Chrome OS is great news for Valve and anyone who wants to game on a cheap Chromebook, there are some serious limitations right now due to the hardware being used. The majority of Chromebooks don't pack much performance, memory, or storage, and certainly don't have a dedicated GPU. Very old games should run fine, but anything released over the past several years would likely struggle or not run at all.
The flip-side to that problem is the potential for gaming Chromebooks to appear. Vendors could market them as a safe way to surf the internet and do some work, while also being the perfect entertainment device. The price of these Chromebooks would be considerably higher though, assuming they'd need a faster CPU, dedicated GPU, and a lot more on-board storage.
Regardless of whether Steam on Chrome OS ends up happening, Google has another ace up its sleeve. If Stadia continues to develop as a platform we'll be able to play any game, old or new on even the cheapest Chromebooks as long as Chrome OS gets a Stadia client.