Google brings Android games to Windows in 2022

Google plans to bring Android games to Windows PCs next year. A Google Play Games app will be available in 2022, built by Google to allow games from Google Play to run on Windows laptops, tablets and PCs.

“Starting in 2022, gamers will be able to experience their favorite Google Play games across multiple devices: Switch seamlessly between a phone, tablet, Chromebook, and soon Windows PCs,” said Greg Hartrell, Google Product Director for Gaming on Android and Google Play, in a statement to The edge. “This Google-built product brings the best of Google Play Games to more laptops and desktops, and we’ve excited to expand our platform so players can enjoy their favorite Android games even more.”

It tells Google spokesman Alex Garcia-Kummert The edge that the company has built this app on its own, which means that Google has not entered into a partnership with Microsoft, BlueStacks or others here. The upcoming app will also allow players to resume games on a desktop PC after playing them on a phone, tablet or Chromebook.

For now, Google is just teasing the app during The Game Awards tonight, with a promised release window at some point next year. It’s not yet clear what technology Google will use to emulate Android apps on Windows, but games will run locally instead of streaming from the cloud.

“This will be a built-in Windows app distributed by Google that will support Windows 10 and later,” Hartrell explains. “It will not involve game streaming.” Google’s app will not be dependent on any particular integration with Windows 11, and the company will also distribute the app itself.

Microsoft is also bringing Android apps to Windows 11.

Google’s announcement comes months after Microsoft began testing Android apps on Windows 11 PCs. Microsoft has built an underlying Windows subsystem for Android that is capable of running Android apps from a variety of sources. The software giant has partnered with Amazon to let Windows users install built-in games and apps from the Amazon Appstore, but built-in Google Play support will not be officially available through Microsoft’s feature.

Since Microsoft has only officially partnered with Amazon for that feature, it has meant that far fewer Android games and apps are available for Windows 11 users to easily install than there might otherwise be. The door is open so Google, BlueStacks and others can fill that gap.

While Microsoft, and now Google, are working on bringing Android apps and games to Windows, BlueStacks has gone a step further and is now bringing Android games to web browsers. BlueStacks X is a free way to play Android games in your browser, and BlueStacks has been focused on Android games on Windows since it became the dominant application of its main app in 2016.

Details of Google’s plans for Android apps on Windows first appeared in a document from Epic v. Apple trial earlier this year. Dated October 2020, the 70-page document described an ambitious effort to get Android games for Mac and Windows PCs. The document revealed that Google would first bring “emulated, native and streamed games” to Windows, and at least part of that effort will start in 2022.