Despite the failure of Stadia, Google continues to invest in video games with Google Play Games, software for running Android titles on PC. A specialized competitor for Windows 11 Android system.
Google persists and signs! Despite the bitter failure of Stadia, its cloud gaming service, the Web giant intends to become a major player in the video game market. This time, it is with Google Play Games that he is trying his luck. It is a launcher – a launcher, in French – which allows players to enjoy the best mobile titles on their personal computer. Announced in December 2021, the service launched in January 2022 in a beta version in a narrow market including Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Hong Kong. Since November 2, Google Play Games has been available in the United States, but also in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. Europe should be the next to have access to it. For now, it is only possible to register in order to receive a notification when the beta is launched in France. “We are excited to expand our platform to more markets so gamers can enjoy their favorite games on Google Play.“says Arjun Dayal, director of Google Play Games, in a blog post. “As we move towards a full release, we will continue to add new features and evaluate developer and player feedback.“.
Google Play Games: no need for an overpowered PC
In practice, Google Play Games is software for Windows that allows you to play some Android mobile games – but not all – and therefore enjoy greater comfort and better gameplay. Unlike Stadia or Microsoft’s Cloud Gaming, the games do not work through remote servers: they are installed directly on the PC and use the latter’s resources. Google has bet on the accessibility card and therefore offers software and games that do not need a war machine to operate. You need at least a PC with a processor (CPU) with four physical cores (Intel or AMD, it doesn’t matter), 8 GB of RAM, 10 GB of free storage (SSD), an Intel graphics circuit (GPU) UHD Graphics 630, all running Windows 10 or Windows 11. Of course, a more powerful machine will be even more comfortable, but a five-year-old computer may be enough to enjoy it.
The rendering of the image remains to be seen, because not all games were designed for large screens. Google Play Games supports mouse, keyboard, but also gamepads to make gameplay more comfortable. Note that the interface does not resemble that of the Google Play Store, but is closer to Steam, GOG Galaxy and Epic Games Store. A clearly displayed desire to get closer to these PC gaming platforms.
Small problem, however: not all Android titles are compatible. For now, there are only 85 games validated by the service, of which Just Dance Now, WWE SuperCard and Cookie Run: Kingdom. Even if the service is only in its infancy, it’s very little… To prevent potential players from simply turning to an Android emulator, the Internet giant is banking on data synchronization via the user’s Google account, which allows you to resume a game launched from a mobile device on a PC, and vice versa. In the end, Google Play Games promises to be a nice and free bonus, but which may well be insufficient to allow Google to establish itself in the world of video games. Not to mention that it comes – slightly – in competition with the Android system of Windows 11, which allows it to run almost all Android applications on a PC (see our article), but which is in practice much more greedy, thus requiring a Much more muscular PC.