Submit your Google Play Games on PC game

This guide describes how to submit your game for distribution on Google Play Games on PC.

As you complete the tasks, ensure that you opt in to the Google Play Games on PC distribution; otherwise, your submission will fail.

Verify that you meet the Google Play Games on PC requirements

To ensure a smooth game submission process, review the Playability requirements and ensure that you've met the Google Play Games on PC playability requirements.

For games getting fully certified for Google Play Games on PC, review the Requirements Checklist.

Add the Google Play Games on PC form factor

To enable the Google Play Games on PC form factor:

1. Go to advanced distribution settings at Release > Advanced settings (direct link)
2. Go to the Form factors tab and add Google Play Games on PC from the + Add form factor dropdown.

You have two options to choose between: Use the same release track and artifacts as your mobile app and Use a dedicated release track for Google Play Games on PC.

Use the first option to continue using the mobile release track to serve Google Play Games on PC with the same artifact. This makes it easier to maintain the release process and QA testing, as the same artifact can contain both assets and features for different form factors. You can achieve that by leveraging Android app bundles without affecting the download size of the game.

If you have to use a different release artifacts for Google Play Games on PC, choose the second option. That allow you to create and use separate tracks for the form factor of Google Play Games on PC. Manage your Google Play Games on PC releases and users separately from your mobile app, so that you can publish different artifacts on each platform. See Create and configure your Play multiplatform users track to manage the track.

If your game is already on the dedicated track, it works as it did before, and you will not see any changes. We do not support migrating from the dedicated track to the unified mobile track, but we are working on improving this in the future.

Note: We do support adding a dedicated track at anytime. However, as mentioned above, this change is one-way. Therefore, start out on one track and then switch over to the dedicated track if it makes more sense for your game.

Opt in to Google Play Games on PC distribution

1. Go to advanced distribution settings at Release > Advanced settings.
2. Go to the Form factors tab and open the settings for Google Play Games on PC via the Manage button.
3. Select Opt-in to Google Play Games on PC and save the settings.

Note: Remember to Publish your changes to finish activating the PC formfactor.

Set up game cards to make your game stand out on PC (optional)

A game card is an app icon for desktop games on Google Play Games. It has expressive qualities, including interactive behavior and videos on hover. These can be found on Home, Library, Continue Playing and All Games pages.

Game cards are composed from two elements, a background and a logo. Both of these need to be set at the same time, otherwise you will receive an error in the console.

To set up game cards, visit the Grow > Store Presence > Main store listing or Custom store listings menus.

1. To set up the game card backgound, select “Google Play Games on PC feature graphic”.

   1. The image must be a PNG or JPG, 16:9 aspect ratio, up to 15 MB, with each side between 720 and 7680 px.
   2. The image should represent the game cover and not contain any text.

2. To set up the game card logo, select Google Play Games on PC logo.

   1. The image must be a PNG, 600px by 400px, up to 8mb.
   2. The image should represent your game name and will be overlaid on top of the feature graphic. It should have a transparent background.

Setting these elements helps promote your game in different places in Google Play.

Create and configure your Play multiplatform users track

To distribute a PC optimized build, create a track:

1. Go to the closed testing page at Release > Test > Closed testing (direct link).
2. If you have a dedicated track for Google Play Games on PC: Select Google Play Games on PC only from the form factors selector. If you are using your mobile artifacts, you don't need to select a new form factor.
3. Create a new closed testing track:
   1. Click Create track in the top right corner.
   2. Name the track Play multiplatform users. On successful creation, the site directs you to the track page for your new track. This is also located on the closed testing page for the release type.
4. Click the Manage track button for the track.

5. On the Countries / regions tab, select the countries that should be targeted by the track. These are the countries and regions where releases on this track will be available. We recommend you select all available countries.

   1. You must include "United States" and "United Kingdom" for testing purposes if you opt to only allow certain regions.
   Note: Including "United States" and "United Kingdom" is required for test tracks, but optional for production tracks.

6. On the Testers tab:

   1. Select Google Groups.
   2. In the Email addresses field, add the email [e-mail].
   Note: Make a note of the opt-in URL provided for the test track to speed up the review process.

Roll out a release on the dedicated track

Create a new Google Play Games on PC release on the closed Play multiplatform users track and upload your game.

1. Go back to the track page for your new track. See Create and configure your Play multiplatform users track to manage the track.
2. Click Create release, which opens the Prepare release page for the new release.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to prepare your release:
   • Add your app bundles or APKs.
   • Name your release.
   • Enter release notes for the version of your release.
4. Click Save to save your changes.
5. Click Review release to proceed to the review page.
6. On the review page, ensure that all the information you have entered is correct.
   • Validation errors and warnings will appear at the top of the screen. Errors need to be resolved before you can proceed.
   • Review the information on the page to ensure that you have uploaded correct artifacts and entered your release details.
7. Click Start roll-out at the bottom of the page to complete rolling out your release.

For more information, see the Prepare and roll out a release help center article.

Note: You must have your Google Play Games on PC release align with your Android mobile update. Failure to do so will cause your game to warn users of game updates that are not available to them.

Remove the Google Play Games on PC only form factor

If you choose to remove your game from Google Play Games on PC, you can accomplish this by removing the form factor as follows:

1. Go to advanced distribution settings at Release > Advanced settings.
2. Go to the Form factors tab
3. Find the Google Play Games on PC section
4. Select Remove on the right (next to Manage)
5. Read and confirm the dialog box that appears

After that, users who have already downloaded your game are still able to play it, but the game is no longer available in the Google Play Games on PC storefront and updates are no longer published to Google Play Games on PC.

Beta release considerations

Because Google Play Games on PC is still in beta, support for more advanced testing and release track configurations is not yet fully implemented. Don't rely on test or beta tracks for any purpose other than those listed on this page for PC releases at this time.