{"id":471324,"date":"2026-03-12T11:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/471324\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T11:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:04:12","slug":"google-play-targets-pc-gamers-with-some-big-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/471324\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Play targets PC gamers with some big upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img class=\"e_lg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  title=\"Google Play Games on PC Showing Two Android Games at Once\"  alt=\"Google Play Games on PC Showing Two Android Games at Once\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Google-Play-Games-on-PC-Showing-Two-Android-Games-at-Once.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>C. Scott Brown \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n<p>TL;DR<\/p>\n<p>Google Play is getting a bunch of new PC-focused features, including a dedicated tab in the Store.<br \/>\n\u201cBuy once, play anywhere\u201d will start letting you play both PC and mobile versions of select games for one price.<br \/>\nPlay is finally adding support for try-before-you-buy game demos.<\/p>\n<p>All too often, Google Play feels like a bit of a workhorse. You go there to find your apps when setting up a new device, pop in once in a while to check out the latest new app to launch, and maybe troll the update screen every few months. But Google\u2019s been working hard to make Play feel much more welcoming, especially for gamers. This year at the annual GDC Festival of Gaming, <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.google\/products-and-platforms\/platforms\/google-play\/google-play-paid-games-updates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Google<\/a> shares the latest ways it\u2019s improving Play with gamers in mind.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t want to miss the best from Android Authority?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/andauth.co\/AAGooglePreferredSource\" class=\"e_nm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\"><img class=\"e_lg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"google preferred source badge light@2x\"  alt=\"google preferred source badge light@2x\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768240152_738_google_preferred_source_badge_light@2x.png\"\/><img class=\"e_lg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"google preferred source badge dark@2x\"  alt=\"google preferred source badge dark@2x\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768240152_238_google_preferred_source_badge_dark@2x.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Not always sure if you\u2019re going to like a game? PC gamers are used to the permissive refund policies of platforms like Steam effectively working like a universal demo system, letting you try out games before fully committing to them. While Google\u2019s not about to do anything quite that broad, it now confirms that Game Trials are coming to select titles.<\/p>\n<p>We first spotted work towards supporting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/google-play-store-try-before-you-buy-apk-teardown-3630383\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">try-before-you-buy demos<\/a> earlier this year, and Google now says that Game Trials will first debut for certain paid Android games. That will eventually expand to Google Play Games on PC at some point in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of PC titles, Google has some great news for gamers who equally appreciate PC and mobile platforms: Play is introducing new \u201cbuy once, play anywhere\u201d pricing for certain games, and when you purchase one of these on either platform, you\u2019ll also get free access on the other. That list is set to include titles like Dungeon Clawler and Reigns games, and Play gets started with this system today.<\/p>\n<p>Google\u2019s interested in giving gamers a better selection of premium, paid games across the board. Free-to-play may be a convenient way to pick something new up, but we all know how frustrating it can be to deal with constant pushes towards microtransactions. If you\u2019d rather just pay upfront for a good time, Google says that it\u2019s focusing on bringing more indie games to Play, including Peaks, Sledding Game, and Low-Budget Repairs \u2014 all in the months to come.<\/p>\n<p>Discovering new PC games is also getting easier, thanks to a dedicated tab in the Play Store \u2014 even on mobile.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"e_lg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"play games pc tab\"  alt=\"play games pc tab\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/play-games-pc-tab.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Remember Sidekick, the AI-powered system <a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/play-games-leagues-3600071\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google announced last year<\/a> for offering a little helpful advice during challenging games? Your chance to see if it lives up to its promise is now arriving, as Google opens up access for <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/editorial?id=mc_games_editorialmd_gdc_sidekick_fcp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">select paid PC games<\/a>. And finally, if you\u2019d rather just get some tips from another human player, Google is expanding Play\u2019s Community Posts forums to support more games and discussions in additional languages.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0<a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-authority-comment-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-authority-comment-policy\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"C. Scott Brown \/ Android Authority TL;DR Google Play is getting a bunch of new PC-focused features, including&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[844,21534,71312,2306,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-471324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-google","tag-google-play","tag-google-play-games","tag-mobile","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}