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Google announced back in March of this year that its Google Play Games service would be coming to Windows PCs, breaking mobile gaming free of, well, mobile devices and expanding it to more players, more devices, and more possibilities. In particular, mouse and keyboard support as well as support for game controllers make these titles previously bound to your handset capable of being played on larger screens with more inputs.
Unfortunately, the desktop app was only launched in select Eastern countries at first, primarily because mobile gaming is much larger there than it is in Western countries due to the perception and culture surrounding micro-transactions.
Now, the previously closed beta has launched as an open beta and Google has invited South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and Australia in to test it and provide feedback. Everyone else will have to add themselves to the waitlist to be notified when it becomes available for download and installation in their regions.
On top of that, Google Play Games will now require lower hardware specs to play. In fact, the company has cut the demand in half, asking gamers to have a 4-core CPU and 10GB of free storage space on their PC as opposed to the 8-core and 20GB requirement it used to hold.
Lastly, Google is hoping to ensure there is plenty for users to play when they finally fire up the full-fledged piece of software and has added more than twice as many games to its desktop catalog over the past few months. I can’t wait to get my hands on Play Games for Windows, and will be fully reviewing it in the future. I hope the desktop UI hits Chromebooks and replaces the Android-style layout of the app, but I’m not holding my breath at this time.
“In the last few months, we have more than doubled our Google Play Games catalog to 50+ titles, which can be played on Windows PCs via a standalone application built by Google. Our catalog includes many of the most popular mobile games in the world including Summoners War, Cookie Run: Kingdom, Last Fortress: Underground, and Top War. Together, these games are played by hundreds of millions of players globally,”
Google Play Games
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