According to an interview conducted by Android Police with Google Chrome OS Director of Product Management Kan Liu, Google is working to bring native Steam support to Chrome OS devices, Valve is also helping to make this happen.

The interview, which took place at last week's Consumer Electronics Show, discusses how Google and Valve are working to get Steam to run as a native app on Chrome OS devices, including the very popular Chromebook laptops The story goes on to say. The timing of this release has not been disclosed, but it will likely rely on Steam Proton, Valve's proprietary open source compatibility layer that allows Steam and many Steam games to run like natives on Linux platforms Liu also said, citing the recent popularity of other cross-platform APIs such as Vulkan over Windows-only DirectX.

Until now, official support for Steam on Chrome OS has been non-existent; there have been ways to get Steam to work, but all have been laborious, ineffective, or both. Also, most Chrome OS devices are lightweight in terms of specs and would not be able to run the game even if the software were compatible.

Regardless, the fact that this may be what Google and Valve are working on together, after schemes like Steam Play that opened up Mac games and Valve's first foray into Linux, SteamOS, an OS for games It is exciting and reiterates Valve's commitment to being an OS-agnostic platform.

On Google's part, Liu notes that the most downloaded apps on Chrome OS devices are games, and having a major storefront like Steam running natively will further Google's attempt to get into gaming Epic, GOG Galaxy, Uplay, and Battle.net are not yet compatible with Chrome OS.

No timeline has been announced for this, and Valve has yet to confirm if they are indeed working with Google. If this is true, Chrome OS will be open to more than just mobile gaming apps for the first time. With improved in-game performance, this could make PC gaming cheaper and easier than on Windows laptops; we've reached out to Valve to see if they're ready to reveal more details, so stay tuned for updates.