Last December, Google unexpectedly announced the arrival of Play Games for Windows PCs in 2022. Today, only about a month later, the company has already launched the pre-registration for Google Play Games Beta on Windows PCs in selected countries.
Google Play Games for PC will allow gamers to play some existing Android games on their Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC taking advantage of the Google Play Points rewards program and across-sync between all devices signed in with the same Google account. This allows users to sync their progress and their game library across devices, for a synchronized gaming experience between smartphones, tablets, Chromebooks, and Windows PC.
As a first stage, the beta version has only been launched in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan, and anyone in these regions will be able to join the Google Play Games Beta waitlist today. The registrants will receive an invitation later this year, to participate in the beta program with a link to download a PC check tool to ensure that their computer (desktop or laptop) meets the minimum requirements, which are:
- Windows 10 (version 2004).
- A solid-state drive (SSD).
- 20 GB of available storage space.
- Gaming-class GPU.
- 8 logical CPU cores.
- 8 GB of RAM.
- Windows admin account.
- Hardware virtualization must be turned on.
- Compatible PC device and configuration.
If you are wondering what the Gaming-class GPU means, it is the set of graphics cards that this gaming service from Google will support:
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 600, 700, 800, 900, or 10 series
- NVIDIA Volta series
- NVIDIA GeForce 16, 20, or 30 series
- Intel Iris Xe Graphics
- AMD Radeon HD 7790, 7850, 7870, 7950, 7970, or 7990
- AMD Radeon HD 8970 or 8990
- AMD Radeon R9 200 series
- AMD Radeon R7/R9 300 series
- AMD Radeon RX 400 series
- AMD Radeon RX 570, 580, or 890
- AMD Radeon RX Vega series
- AMD Radeon VII series
- AMD Radeon RX 5000 or 6000 series
During installation, you’ll also be asked to turn on Hypervisor or HAXM, and sadly some devices aren't compatible with this new Google's service, such as AMD devices with less than 1 GB VRAM and Lenovo ThinkPads.
After passing the scan test, you will have to go to this link, click the "Download" button to download the Play Games Beta app for Windows, and then follow the instructions on your PC screen to install it.
The installation process may take a few minutes, and when it's finished, you'll likely need to sign in with the Google account you used to sign up for the beta waitlist, and you'll be able to play your games on your Windows PC.
Only a limited set of games will be available for download and play at the launch of Google Play Games for PC, such as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Summoners War, State of Survival: The Joker Collaboration, and Three Kingdoms Tactics, with more games to be available over time.
Google has not provided any specific date for when the list of countries in which users are entitled to join the waiting list for the beta program will expand, nor when registered players will receive an invitation to try this new service from Google.
There are also no details about the possible release of Google Play Games for macOS, but a paragraph in the FAQ section at the bottom of the beta program page confirms that "Google Play Games is not yet available for Mac", which means that we may see this service in the future on Mac devices as well.