Back in January, it was reported that plans were afoot to turn Chromebooks into giant gaming machines, with ChromeOS users no longer having to settle for Android titles, and instead limited support for Steam games was imminent. Now, according to an investigation by Android Police, the plans are well underway and it may not be long before the feature appears. [Games will be supported via a Linux virtual machine, which will severely impact the amount available. However, while Chromebooks don't have the variety to rival the least expensive Windows 10 gaming laptops, they remain a nice bonus for those who value the portability, battery life, and responsiveness of the Chrome OS.

So what did Android Police find? The site has been tracking Chromium's open source code and discovered something codenamed "Borealis," which turns out to be a complete Linux distribution based on Ubuntu.

This may not sound like a big deal, considering that ChromeOS has included another Linux distribution, Crostini, for over a year. However, there is one major difference: Borealis has Steam pre-installed. Also, importantly, Valve's Proton (the compatibility layer that allows Linux Steam to run games originally made for Windows) recommends Ubuntu. Crostini, on the other hand, is a Debian build.

Of course, not all Chromebooks are created equal, so performance is far from guaranteed. Google makes high-end Pixelbook devices, but most are cheap and cheerful laptops for the education market.

As of this writing, Steam's Linux section lists 2,007 games. But there are some lower-spec options that ChromeOS users will definitely want to try: Counter Strike, Hollow Knight, and Stardew Valley. That's just a fraction of the more than 24,000 Steam games compatible with the Mac, but the upgrade may make the Chromebook a slightly more potent competitor than competitors like the MacBook Air when it comes to gaming.

Chromebooks are big business, especially for the gamer-heavy student market, although according to StatCounter, Linux accounts for just 1.84% of U.S. OS installations, not a huge percentage of potential gamers, more than double if you include the 2.75% of ChromeOS devices. However, including the 2.75% of ChromeOS devices would double this number. Perhaps these numbers will encourage developers to work a little harder to make sure their games work well outside of Windows.

Then again, it's probably not worth overstating things. According to the same statistics, MacOS represents 27.31% of the market, and while things are getting better, no one would seriously argue that the native gaming options on the Mac are comparable to those enjoyed by PC owners.

Still, this is good news for Chromebook owners. The code does not indicate when this feature will be enabled for all users, but it is unlikely that they will have to wait very long.