Playing Android games on a PC has always been possible, but it has never been particularly simple. Bluestacks, an Android emulator, and Android x86 have traditionally been the best bets. For the first time, Google revealed in December 2021 that it will be delivering Android games to Windows using the Windows 11 Android app layer. Google Play Games is now accessible for Windows 10 in a limited beta for customers in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan, according to the search giant.
For games that use the Google Play Games cloud to store achievements and progress, you’ll be able to sync that games’ progress across all of your devices. Only games are included here; no other Google Play Store apps are included. You’ll still need to sideload or use the Amazon App Store to get standard apps.
As reported by Ars Technica, Google says you’ll be able to “play a catalog of Google Play games on… Windows PC via a standalone application built by Google.” The company then goes on to say that it’s “excited to announce that some of the most popular mobile games in the world will be available at launch, including Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Summoners War, State of Survival: The Joker Collaboration, and Three Kingdoms Tactics.”
Beta sign-up and developer sites have been released by Google, but the company hasn’t gone into great detail about how Google Play Games works. According to the information available at this time, the service is not being constructed using the Microsoft Windows or BlueStacks platforms and is not a game streaming service. The following are the bare minimums requirements that have been set forward by the company:
- Windows 10 (v2004)Solid-state drive (SSD)
- Gaming-class GPU
- 8 logical cores of CPU
- 8 GB of RAM
- 20 GB of available storage space
- Windows admin account
- Hardware virtualization must be turned on
- Compatible PC device and configuration
According to Google, there will be regional variations in the official release date. Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan will serve as the company’s beta territories, which will be expanded to other regions later in 2022 and beyond.