Google Play has been sharing the best Android game of the year since the past few years and this year’s edition was just announced! The awards are a combination of editorial reviews and judgements along with Android owners through the user’s choice.

Google says, “Games are transformative: They help build communities, foster creativity, and communicate complex ideas. This year we explored creative playgrounds, enchanting stories, and huge new worlds. Our picks for this year’s top games cover a wide range of experiences that show how people connect through play; presenting Play’s best games of 2022”.

Overall (editorial as well as user’s choice) best game of the year 2022 goes to Electronic Art’s Apex Legends.

Apex Legends Mobile rose through the Esports ranks, regularly trending and appearing in top 10 download lists throughout the year. The game brings all the excitement of the Apex Legends series to mobile and tablets so you can easily play wherever you are.

It is a multiplayer shooter game featuring FPS, TPS, and combat action. In multiplayer mode, you can team up with two other players in competitive PvP team battle games

Apart from the overall winner, Google also announced winners in specific categories…

Best Multiplayer game of the year 2022 : Dislyte

Best Pick Up & Play game of the year 2022 : Unsurprisingly Angry Birds Journey

Best Indies game of the year 2022 : Dicey Dungeons

Best game of the year 2022 for tablets : Tower of Fantasy

And Google has also come up with 3 new categories from this year…

Best story game of the year 2022 : Papers, Please

Best ongoing game of the year 2022 : Genshin Impact

Best game of the year 2022 on Play Pass : Very Little Nightmares

Best game of the year 2022 for Chromebooks : Roblox

Google had earlier this year announced that one will soon be able to play their favorite PlayStore games on their PC. And the good news here is that they are on track with it, with the latest update being that they are expanding the Beta program across many more territories including Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore.

With the launch of Windows 11, Microsoft had announced that they’ll soon start supporting Android apps and games on Windows.

Soon after, Google went ahead to announce that they will launch the Google Play Games for PC, way back in January 2022. At that time of announcement, they had started with support for just about 12 games in a handful of countries for Beta testing and encouraging developers to start supporting the same.

With today’s announcement from Android Developer’s Blog, Google has expanded the list of support games to a few dozens of games including including 1945 Air Force, Blade Idle, Cookie Run: Kingdom, and Evony: The King’s Return, support for Windows 10 as well as support for much lower hardware requirements, which now could run with just a Quad core CPU.

If you’re an Android games developer looking to learn more about Google Play Games, go ahead and express interest on the Google Play Games developer site and you can soon get onboarded and make your game compatible to be playable on bigger laptop screens!

Google advertises the Play Pass as a pass that will let you play your games without any ads or in-app purchases!

Google Play Pass is a library of games and apps, which otherwise would have been ad supported or having in-app purchases for premium features. After its initial launch in US in 2019 with just under a 100 games and apps, today boasts of bouquet of close to a 1000 games and apps, with availability across 90+ countries.

What do you need to get your Google Play Pass?

• An Android phone with a minimum of Android v4.4
• Google Play Store app with v16.6.25 or above
• Reside in a country where Google Play Pass is available

Which games and apps are part of Google Play Pass?

• Good news: There are close to a 1000 apps in the Google Play Pass library and is ever growing
• Bad news: Neither PubG nor Call of Duty are part of it

How to get your Google Play Pass?

• Open your Google Play Store app
• Click on your Profile picture
• Click on Play Pass and start enrolling

Can you share your Google Play Pass with friends and family?

In Google Play Pass, you can register as a Family Manager role and with that, you can then share your pass with upto 5 members of your friends and family

How much does Google Play Pass cost?

Google Play Pass costs $4.99 per month or $29.99 per year, in the United States of America. If you are not from the US, the cost for your own country’s Play Pass subscription would be round about the similar amount after conversion to your local currency.

Fantasy sports industry representing biggies like Dream11, Mobile premier league, Games24x7 and many others have been for years lobbying around Google to allow their apps on Play Store.

Google has for many years maintained a policy that doesn’t allow fantasy sports and gambling apps to be listed on Playstore as it believed that many users don’t understand the complexity of such games and end up loosing a lot of money.

Fantasy sports and rummy games are legal in India, but some states prohibit them. In a verdict last year, India’s Supreme Court ruled that fantasy sports were not gambling, but “games of skill.” Hence, the format is “legal,” the ruling said.

Google finally announced on their Google Play support page that starting September 28, 2022, Play will begin a limited-time pilot allowing for the distribution of DFS and Rummy apps to users in India by developers incorporated in India (the “Pilot Program”).  Applicants that successfully complete the application process and are accepted to participate in the Pilot Program will be eligible to distribute their apps on Google Play for the duration of the Pilot Program to users in India.

Google defines Daily Fantasy Sports and Rummy games as…

Daily Fantasy Sports or “DFS” are games in which contestants use their knowledge of athletic events and athletes to select or manage rosters of simulated athletes whose performance directly corresponds with the actual performance of human athletes on sports teams or in sports events. The outcome of the game depends on how the performances of participants’ fantasy roster choices compare to the performance of others’ roster choices.
Rummy or “Online Rummy Games” are a set of card games available in which a player must to strategize, memorize the fall of cards, and arrange valid card sets and/or sequences by picking and discarding cards from a closed deck and an open deck, offered in either 10, 13, 21, 27 card formats, and in accordance with the rules followed for the offline versions of the same formats conventionally played in India.

Apps looking to participate in the pilot program, amongst other requirements, need to ensure that they only allow users above the legal age of 18years, make sure that the users are verified, with a government issued address proof, to be residing in the states which do allow such games and collect PAN card and bank account details for taxing purposes. If a company offering the game follows these requirements, they can apply to participate in the pilot program by filling up the Support Form.