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Gaming Chromebooks are reportedly coming, with game streaming support
- The first wave of higher end gaming Chromebook is reportedly on the way soon.
- The makers of these Chromebooks, which reportedly include Lenovo and HP, will include RGB keyboard support.
- They may also have Google Stadia and GeForce Now streaming services preinstalled.
High-end PC gaming on laptop devices has been mostly restricted to Windows, though a smaller following exists for Linux and Mac as well. However, there is now growing evidence that the first wave of gaming Chromebooks are being developed.
9to5Google reports, via unnamed sources, that gaming Chromebooks from makers like HP and Lenovo are in the works, complete with RGB keyboard support. While many Chromebooks already have the Google Stadia game streaming application pre-loaded, this new report says the upcoming gaming Chromebooks will have a Cloud Gaming Partner Platform app as well. This app is to access the NVIDIA GeForce Now gaming streaming service, which has hundreds of PC games available to stream.
Read more: Google Stadia vs GeForce Now
The same story reports that ChromeOS’s Explore app, which helps new Chromebook owners with tips on how to best use the device, could be expanded to offer ways to play hundreds of games. Back in April, a separate report stated that Google was working on a way to search many different game sources that could be used by Chromebooks as a one-stop place to find games.
In addition, a separate report from Chrome Unboxed claims it has uncovered evidence of an upcoming Chromebook that will have a processor based on Intel’s Alder Lake CPU and an NVIDIA GPU. The same report claims there’s evidence that this Chromebook could be developed by HP. There’s been no official confirmation that such a Chromebook is in the work.
All of this evidence points to the direction of gaming Chromebooks that can not only connect to the cloud to play high-end PC games but possibly play some games directly (likely using Steam) with powerful Intel and NVIDIA chips. How all of this will ultimately play out is something that we will likely learn in the coming weeks and months.