Google Play Games for PC begins rolling out in beta for 3 countries, but not in the US

In December at the 2021 Game Awards Show, we saw a preview for Google Play Games for PC, a solution for Google to make loads of mobile games compatible and available for desktop and laptop gamers via expanded input options like mouse and keyboard.

Today, the company is opening this up as an early beta for users in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan. While it’s not being released for early testing in the United States or anywhere other than the three countries mentioned, anyone interested can sign up for future access as it rolls out over the course of 2022.

To begin, games like Mobile Legends, Summoner’s War, State of Survival, and Three Kingdoms Tactics, among other popular titles will be available via the new launcher (see the video below), with more being added as Google works directly with developers to make their games compatible with and optimized for PC.

Interestingly, you’ll need a fairly powerful PC to begin playing these mobile games on the big screen. Actually, I take that back – starting now, they’re no longer to be referred to as “mobile” games, but rather Google Play Games that can be played across mobile, PC, tablets, Chromebooks, and more. Google certainly wants to take a more all-inclusive approach to gaming as its library of titles likely numbers in the millions and has become playable on more than just handsets over the years.

Sync your progress and game library across devices with a single sign-in to your Google account. Start playing on your phone, switch to your PC, then pick up on your phone again.

Google Play Games for PC website

I’m personally really hoping to see a few mobile MMORPGs make their way to the platform. A favorite of mine, Toram Online, just released on Steam in December, and it plays pretty well with a mouse and keyboard (Order & Chaos, get your crap together!) It will also be nice to gain achievements across platforms too. To play on PC during the beta, you’ll need to meet or exceed the following specifications for your machine:

• Windows 10 (v2004)
• Solid state drive (SSD)
• Gaming-class GPU
• 8 logical cores of CPU
• 8 GB of RAM
• 20 GB of available storage space
• Windows admin account
• Hardware virtualization must be turned on
• Compatible PC device and configuration

If you want to get excited about what the future holds, you can visit the new Google Play Games for PC website that was just launched. At this time, we still don’t know what the experience will be like for these titles or how well optimized they are with mice and keyboards, but I can’t wait to see these apps break out of the ecosystem they were originally intended for as I believe it’s long overdue.

While I am sad that the beta is not for the US, UK, or other territories, I do understand the limited rollout for Eastern markets as mobile gaming is taken a lot more seriously and is normalized more there than it is in other countries. Rolling out the beta across the board over the course of a year is still not that long of a wait, but let’s hope it impresses when it finally drops. Lastly, I hope we also see an updated Google Play Games Google Play Store app on Chrome OS that matches the desktop layout of the PC launcher so that more users will take gaming seriously on their laptop!