Another one for the Google (and Valve) graveyard, this time it's Steam for Chromebooks as it's being killed off early next year.
The project has been in Beta since November 2022, and sadly it's coming to an abrupt close on January 1st, 2026 where installed games will no longer be playable. It will just be entirely gone. As reported by 9to5Google, when you now go to install Steam on ChromeOS a message will pop up noting "The Steam for Chromebook Beta program will conclude on January 1st, 2026. After this date, games installed as part of the Beta will no longer be available to play on your device. We appreciate your participation in and contribution to learnings from the beta program, which will inform the future of Chromebook gaming."
A shame but not exactly surprising, the Beta never really went anywhere with not much effort seemingly being put into it to push it further. I've barely heard much at all about it since the 2022 Beta release.
Plus, with all the reports on Google looking to in some ways combine Android and ChromeOS together, their focus is clearly elsewhere.
Did any of you use Steam on ChromeOS / Chromebooks?
I've reached out to Valve to see if they have anything to add.
Everything Google touches when it comes to gaming just ends up disappointing or dead. I tried the "Google Play on PC" thing back when I used Windows and it had Clash Royale along with a hundred P2W games no one in their right mind would play ever, let alone on a desktop. Stadia's gone, and now this.
learnings from the beta program, which will inform the future of Chromebook gaming.Apparently what they learned about that future is, there won't be one.
So... A Valve branded SteamOS laptop?

(tbf, the desktop computers we used when I was growing up were running streamlined ZENWorks on top of Windows, so it's not like we were much better off as far as learning how to use a workstation from school; I don't want to give the impression kids now are relatively disadvantaged by using one giant corporation's solution instead of another)