A beta version of Google Play Games for PC, a service by Google that lets you play Android games on a Windows PC, is now rolling out to more than 40 European countries including Austria, Belgium, France, Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, the UK, and New Zealand.
There are currently a little over 100 titles available in the program. It requires a Windows 10 or 11 PC with 4 CPU cores 10GB of free SSD storage paired with at least 8GB RAM and Intel UHD Graphics 630 GPU or better. While these minimum requirements might change as the program steps out from its beta phase, there’s still a good chance that it’ll be widely compatible with a majority of Windows machines in the wild.
Features include progress syncing with your Google account, letting players sync their game progress and pick up where they left off by signing into their Google accounts on any device. Google is also boasting better keyboard and mouse support, something that has been a problem when Android games were emulated in the past.
More games are also being added constantly with the search giant also launching an emulator for developers to specifically debug games. This ties into Google’s Android Studio for game developers letting them fine-tune the player experience and deploy their games on the Play Store.
The rollout follows through on the company’s previous announcement at the Google for Game Developers Summit in March. This project was previously available in 13 countries including Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and the US.
Notably, Google’s Play Games for PC isn’t the only way of playing Android games on Windows PCs either. Users have already had Android emulators like Blustacks and with Windows 11 now having native support to run Android apps, there are plenty of options. However, Google’s offering is expected to be the most refined of these choices.
Regardless, while there’s no word on when the app comes out of beta, Google has clarified that going forward, Google Play Games will refer to the “PC experience where you can enjoy your favourite Android games”. As for the Google Play Games Android app, the company says that it has “more announcements for the mobile app” in the near future.
In the News: Microsoft Build 2023: 5 exciting announcements
