Google Play Games for PC expands its availability again, sticks to Eastern markets for now

Once it finally launched, Google Play Games for Windows PCs came to three countries (Honk Kong, Korea, and Taiwan), but not to the United States. Obviously, mobile gaming is much more viable and accepted in Eastern markets, as are microtransactions, but the thought of having loads of mobile games on a larger screen with gamepad support is just too exciting not to hope for. Shortly thereafter, it showcased some actual UI elements like its navigation, but not much else.

Now, it’s expanding its availability yet again, but to my dismay, it’s still not coming to the U.S. just yet. That’s okay though, and I can be patient, especially as most developers still don’t have great peripheral and large screen support despite Google’s prompting. For now, it’s coming to Australia and Thailand, even though these two new countries aren’t listed on the Play Games region availability page.

Visiting the landing page for Google Play Games for PC in a region that is not yet supported still shows a “Get notified” button, with the text “The beta isn’t available in your region yet”. Luckily, the support page for the new service does state that new regions are “coming soon”. Whether or not that means at some point later this year or next year, we’ll just have to wait and see.

If you still haven’t signed up for the beta, you can do so on the landing page, but as originally stated in the launch announcement, you’ll need a minimum of Windows 10, an SSD, 20GB of available installation/storage space, a gaming-class CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and more.