Google Play Games is coming to PC next year

Google Play Games
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Google Play Games

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A Google Play Games app will be available in 2022, created by Google to enable Google Play games to run on Windows laptops, tablets, and PCs.

Google plans to bring Android games to Windows PCs next year. A Google Play Games app will be available in 2022, created by Google to enable Google Play games to run on Windows laptops, tablets, and PCs.

"Starting in 2022, players will be able to experience their favourite Google Play games on more devices: seamlessly switching between a phone, tablet, Chromebook, and soon, Windows PCs," said Greg Hartrell, Google's product director of games on Android and Google Play, in a statement toThe Verge. "This Google-built product brings the best of Google Play Games to more laptops and desktops, and we are thrilled to expand our platform for players to enjoy their favourite Android games even more."Google spokesperson Alex Garcia-Kummert tells The Verge that the company has created this app on its own, which means that Google has not partnered with Microsoft, BlueStacks, or others here. The upcoming app will also allow gamers to resume games on a desktop PC after playing them on a phone, tablet, or Chromebook.

For now, Google is simply teasing the app during The Game Awards tonight, with a promised launch window for next year. Google is not yet clear what technology to emulate Android apps on Windows, but the games will run locally rather than stream from the cloud.

"This will be a native Windows app distributed by Google, which will support Windows 10 and up," explains Hartrell. "It will not involve game streaming." In addition, Google's app will not depend on any unique integration with Windows 11, and the company will also distribute the app itself.

Google's announcement comes months after Microsoft began testing Android applications on Windows 11 PCs. Microsoft has created an underlying Windows subsystem for Android, which can run Android applications from a variety of sources. In addition, the software giant has partnered with Amazon to allow Windows users to install games and apps from the Amazon Appstore natively. Still, native Google Play support will not be officially available through Microsoft's role.

Since Microsoft is only officially partnering with Amazon for that feature, it has meant far fewer Android games and apps available for Windows 11 users to easily install than there could be otherwise. The door is open for Google, BlueStacks, and others to fill that hole.

While Microsoft and now Google are working to bring Android apps and games to Windows, BlueStacks has gone one step further and brings Android games to web browsers. BlueStacks X is a free way to play Android games in your browser, and BlueStacks has focused on Android games on Windows since it became the predominant use case for its main application in 2016.

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