After launching a beta in 2021, Google has announced a further rollout of the Play Games app for Windows 11, which lets you download and play a bunch of Android games on your tablet or PC.
While you can download Android apps through the Microsoft Store in Windows 11 thanks to Amazon, this is another method of downloading them, but strictly for games, and arguably in a much better layout that doesn’t have junk apps.
Google’s Play Games app (opens in new tab) already has some fun games you can try out right now if you’re in the US or one of the other 13 supported countries, and it makes me wonder if the company also knows just how difficult it is to siphon the good Android apps from the junk ones in Microsoft’s Store.
Could Google be doing it alone in Windows 11 soon?
While I’ve mentioned it before, Microsoft’s redesigned Store in Windows 11 has a junk problem with Android apps, and there’s been no effort from both Amazon or Microsoft as yet to tackle these to improve the quality of the apps which should be useful but alongside this, genuine.
As Google is testing out its own app to let users directly download and play Android games, it’s telling. It’s telling because the agreement for Android apps in the Store is between Amazon and Microsoft, so perhaps Google wants to do this on its own, thanks to the ability to use Android apps in Windows 11.
Regardless, while Google is reportedly aiming for a 2023 release of Play Games for all users in Windows 11, I’m hoping that this could also be the start of other apps to come from Google – such as productivity apps that could be part of this app, or as its own Store app in time.
