Google Play Games Beta is now available for Windows 10 and 11
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Key notes
- We previously showed you how to install Google Play on your Windows 11 devices.
- However, the beta for the official product has now become available through Google.
- This service is only available for users in a small number of countries, for the moment.
- Unlike Microsoft's WSA, this Google service will also be compatible with Windows 10.
It was back in December that Google made the surprise announcement that its Google Play Games service will become available on Windows PCs in 2022.
You’ll be pleased to know that it’s already happening and the rollout process for the Beta version has started in select countries.
Great news for users, even though they have Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) for sideloading APKs, thanks to Microsoft’s partnership with Amazon.
Beta for Google Play Games only available in some countries
Google revealed a beta for Android games on Windows PCs for users that reside in countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea.
People in these regions can sign up on the official website and unlock the ability to play Android games on their Windows devices.
There are some factors to consider here, meaning that Windows Subsystem for Android does not provide Google Play services by default.
Thus, you can easily sync your progress across devices compatible with Google Play and earn points, and it also supports Windows 10, unlike WSA.
Note that there are also some system requirements to be taken into consideration when thinking about installing:
- 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
And even though there are some workarounds to installing and running Google Play services, using WSA, on Windows 11, it is not officially supported.
Google also mentioned that it works closely with developers in order to ensure that their games are optimized for PCs and support all of the associated input peripherals.
The company provides more details and offers assistance on the latest page destined for those interested.
Users that sign up will be, of course, enrolled in a waitlist with invites being sent out progressively, starting with three countries for now, but the program will be expanded to more countries throughout the year.
And if we judge by the fact that this service expands the Google Play compatibility to Windows 10 as well, it can arguably be seen as the superior competitor to Microsoft’s WSA for Windows 11.
