For years Google has looked with indifference to Windows, but that seems to have changed: Google advanced us more interoperability between Android and Windows, in addition to the bomb news that Google Play Games came to Windows, first as a closed beta. They have not been long in coming: there are already Windows games on Google Play.
Google’s assault on Windows has already begun, and the major redesign of Google Play that is active in a few countries includes its own section for Windows games that, in some cases, do not go through Google Play Games for Windows, but are downloaded as an EXE installer of a lifetime.
Waiter, there’s a Windows in my Google Play
Android games are going to come to Windows through the door of Google Play Games, but this will not be the only access point. Some games can be downloaded as EXE files, which install the game in the “traditional” way on the PC, with its installer and all.
When this happens, we will see the Download on Windows button in the Google Play list, which shares the spotlight with Install on Android, which corresponds to the previous button. An example of a Windows game that is available on GooglePlay is Lineage2M.
The Download button in Windows downloads the Lineage2MNU_PURPLE_Installer.exe file, which is installed in Windows like any other application. Purple is an Android emulator specialized in games that has Lineage2M among its supported games. That is, in the case of Lineage2M, it is an Android emulator for Windows.
Google calls these games “local games”, those that are installed in the normal way, but they will not be the only ones that will be available. In the redesign of Google Play that is active in South Korea we can see that they will be separated from what Google calls “Google Play Games on PC” games.
These games from Google Play Games for PC seem to work differently, probably being the same APK as for a mobile or tablet, but they will work under the same system emulated in Windows. Typically, the emulation was managed by the new Google Play Games for Windows app that Google announced, since the Android subsystem of Windows 11 does not include Google services, at least for the moment.
The details are still a bit up in the air, but one thing is clear: Google Play is going to stop being an Android app store, and it’s going to become a universal app store, including at least games for Windows, coinciding with its redesign. Even without the redesign, there are already some Windows games like Lineage2M that can be downloaded.
