No more time Snake o Flaming bird; Current mobile games are already very similar to those that come out for consoles and computers, and sometimes they offer exactly the same experience. But it is no less true that there is always a large barrier between mobile phones and the rest of the game platforms, and today, Google presented its plan to demolish it.
On the occasion of the GDC 2025, the largest conference for video game developers in the world that this year takes place next week, Google has announced a large number of new features related to the way Android games are created and distributed; And the one who can be affected the most by these changes is, curiously, a valve.
And it is that one of the greatest advertisements is the Opening of Google Play games for all computers and gamesboth of Android and PC. Recall that Play Games is a Windows program that allows you to install and run Android games on the computer; However, so far, it was a very limited project, with a small amount of games and compatible systems.
With a future update, All Android games can be played on the default computerWithout needing the developer to do anything; Although those who wish can remove their game from the list for any reason. Of course, this does not mean that all games will work properly on a computer, because Play Games uses an emulator to convert Android instructions to those of Windows.
To inform the player, Google has implemented a system that Indicates the level of compatibility In computers showing an icon with three colors. “Optimized” games work perfectly on a computer without having to do anything, while “playable” meets minimum requirements, and “safe” can undergo problems or need an additional configuration.
PC games as an elysium and dredge album will arrive in Android
The free android
As part of Google's renewed bet, Playing games will become a game store similar to SteamAnd in fact, he intends to be his direct rival because he will also offer computer games, in addition to Android games. Google will offer tools and initiatives to PC game developers to launch their games on the game game, with the promise of purchases in simpler games, advanced security and financial advantages.
But above all, Google wants to make a giant jump in the development of smartphones games, and this is where the big background change between: Vulkan is the new API for Android graphics. An API is a set of instructions that programmers can use to create their applications; So far, Android has used OpenGL as an API for everything related to graphics, but it has already become obsolete and put many obstacles to developers to take advantage of “equipment”.
Vulkan is the spiritual successor of OpenGL, a modern API and designed to offer better direct control over “material”. In addition, it is multiplatform, which reaffirms Google's commitment to competing both on the Android and PC market; The developers will have more installations to launch PC games on Android, and vice versa.
The use of Vulkan should also allow developers Take advantage of new technologies, such as ray trainingUntil now have only appeared in a few titles for Android. All this should result in more advanced games and with graphics closer to those of the console and the computer. In fact, Google has already endured Vulkan from Android 7.0 Nougat, but it was just an option for developers. The plan announced today assumes that today Vulkan is the new official Android 15 API, and the next games and applications will have to use it (although the OpenGL support is not yet abandoned).
