Google workaround lets you run Play Games beta on unsupported PCs

In bringing Play Games to open beta last year, Google lowered the minimum specs requirement. The company is now providing a workaround for accessing the Play Games for PC beta on unsupported hardware.

Back in August, Google started supporting integrated GPUs (like the Intel UHD Graphics 630 and comparable) after previously requiring a gaming-ready GPU from AMD or Nvidia, which remains “recommended for better gameplay performance.” There was also a lowering from “8 logical cores” for the processor to “4 CPU physical cores,” and just 10GB of SSD space (from 20GB).

That said, Google has “seen a lot of you reach out about having machines that are below our current minimum specs.”

While we still believe meeting our current minimum system requirement is the best and supported way to experience Google Play Games Beta, we are looking into how we can reduce our minimum specs soon.

Google will look into lowering the minimum spec further but is now officially providing a workaround to access Play Games for PC on currently unsupported devices that involves disabling the compatibility check:

1. In the Windows search box, enter environment variables.
2. Click this panel: “edit environment variables for your account”.
3. Under user variables, click “New…”.
4. Set Variable name to “GOOGLE_PLAY_GAMES_SUPPRESS_COMPATIBILITY_CHECK”.
5. Set Variable value to “true”.
6. Click OK and close all screens.
7. If Google Play Games is running in your system tray, exit it from the tray icon and restart it. If not, continue by clicking Google Play Games in the Start menu.

Google says it “can’t guarantee how well games run, or if games run at all, on some PCs.”

Meanwhile, Google now maintains a list of known issues that it’s currently working through:

• We have stopped supporting HAXM for new installations as of November 11, 2022
• “Setting up…” download not finishing error message
• Google Play Games PC application is stuck on a black screen
• Error code after login: SA200
• AMD integrated GPUs

More on Play Games:

• January Google System Updates: Play Games profile revamp, more
• Google launches Play Games for PC beta in the US with 50+ Android games
• Searching for Stadia: Xbox Game Pass is cloud gaming’s best hope