It’s been more than a year since Google Play Games for PC expanded its availability to include the MENA region, yet still has the beta status. The first beta released in 2022, and it’s seen a handful of Android games make their way to the PC. That number is about to grow – Google has announced that all Android-based mobile games will be coming to the PC.
Growing Android gaming library
Every Android game that runs on your smartphone or tablet will be showing up on the Google Play Games for PC launcher on Windows. Previously, developers had to opt-in for their games to show up. This news now means it’s a default, but the developers can opt out of it. That’s about 1000s of additional games to a new hardware platform.
While transition from touchscreen to a keyboard/mouse combo does require additional work, Google has apparently tackled this courtesy of improved custom controls. This makes it easy to map keyboard and gamepad controls onto touchscreen-only games. Developers can still optimize their games for PC/laptop users.
This also brings about the playability challenges, since it’s a different control scheme. Google Play Games for PC will be adding specific badges to games, same like Valve’s Steam Deck
- Optimized: Game meets all of the quality standards for a great gaming experience.
- Playable: Meets the minimal requirements to play well on a PC.
- Untested: Appears if a user specifically searches for it in the Google Play Games for PC launcher. Users can also express interest in having the game evaluated for playability via this form.
Tweaking Improvements for PC
While the requirements have been previously locked requiring an Intel processor, the expanded Google Play Games for PC catalog will now be supporting AMD CPUs on both desktops and laptops.
Further broadening the appeal, Google is also looking to work with various PC OEMs (the people making and selling branded PCs and laptops) to make it accessible from the start menu.
There will also be support for multi-account and multi-instance support as well. Last but not least, it’ll be dropping the ‘beta’ label and entering the general stable release later in 2025. When? We’ll have to wait and see.
Image Credit: Google Blog
