PC versions of Google Play Games keep track of your progress even if you don’t have a smartphone or tablet
Google’s promised Google Play Games for PC programme is now available for Windows PCs, so you no longer need a top-of-the-line Android phone to play the Play Store’s games.
You can see it in action in the video uploaded by Android specialist Mishaal Rahman at the Google for Games Developer Summit in Hong Kong. In terms of the user experience, it’s very straightforward, with a home page that lists available games for download, a library that lists the games you’ve already purchased, and a profile page that shows off your successes.
Earlier this year, the Google Play Games app was introduced, and it can run Android games natively on Windows and sync them with your phone so that you can preserve your progress no matter what device you’re presently playing on! Last month, Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 11, made it possible for native Android applications to operate on the operating system. If you haven’t been able to update to Windows 10, you’ll be able to play Google Play Games on your PC as well.
This service is available in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong only at the moment. Readers in the United States and the United Kingdom may not be able to use it for some time. It’s also a shame that you can’t explore the whole Play Store catalogue through the app right now, but that’ll change in the future. This is likely to change as Google continues to improve the app and make it available in additional locations.
To play Google Play Games on a computer running Windows 11 or Windows 10, you’ll need to make sure your system specifications are enough. More though Google’s system requirements are quite forgiving, we have resupply recommendations for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 and even more powerful GPUs if you need one for dedicated PC gaming.