Play on the Chromebook? Post-Stadia chaos

There was reportedly quite a bit of chaos when Stadia was shut down. Some even claim that the development teams only found out about the service shutdown through the press. The new Chromebooks, which are purpose-built for cloud gaming, appear to be just as chaotic.

Chromebook for gaming

The new Gaming Chromebooks are a total of three models, each from Asus, Acer and Lenovo. To suit the target audience, Chromebooks are equipped with better keyboards and displays with a high refresh rate of 120 to 144 Hz. Gaming Chromebooks shouldn’t be without RGB lighting, either. The design of the new Chromebooks is largely based on the common designs of other gaming laptops. Mobile variants of 11th and 12th generation Intel Core processors are installed in Chromebooks. Chromebooks also have Wi-Fi 6 or 6E. Acer’s version even has an Ethernet port. However, what the new Chromebooks don’t have are graphics cards. However, those who only use the devices to stream games will hardly notice it.

However, the differences from regular Chromebooks aren’t just in the hardware. Google has also made some changes on the software side. The Chromebook’s operating system, Chrome OS, is packed with some new features that should enable cloud gaming. Also, it should now be possible to connect common hardware such as controllers without issue.

What comes after Stadia?

Stadia’s discontinuation caused a lot of chaos, presumably among the Chromebook team as well. It is believed that the new variants were originally intended to be compatible with Stadia, but this spontaneously changed when the service was discontinued. However, since the new Chromebooks already exist, an alternative was needed. It is now clear that the choice fell on Nvidia with GeForce Now and Microsoft with Xbox Cloud Gaming. Steam should also be supported, although there are massive restrictions here.

Since Steam is not a cloud gaming service, Chromebooks have to play installed games on their own. This is hardly possible without a graphics card. Players can only play low-demand games, such as some indie games, through Steam. The three new models are probably the first, but also the last, gaming Chromebooks. After Stadia already failed cloud gaming, it could new chromebooks like rate. The cheapest of the three models is available from 400 euros, the most expensive variant costs 729 euros.