Finnish developer Supercell is set to bring their flagship title Clash of Clans and its spin-off Clash Royale to PC for the first time, via the Google Play Games service. The games are soft launching today in Canada, Chile and Singapore with global launches to follow.
They announced the move via X (formerly Twitter) in a post here. And invited their fans to find out more here.
The release of these games promises to come packaged with mouse controls, optimised graphics and other high-end performance capabilities.
For a developer intrinsically linked to the global mobile gaming industry, it’s a major step by Supercell to bring their hits to PC for the first time, and via Google Play Games - a third-party service. Clash of Clans is arguably Supercell’s biggest title, and the success of the game shattered many early notions of the distinction between mobile and gaming on other platforms.
Clash of Clans and Clash Royale are both available as soft launch titles in the regions outlined above from today. There's no promise as regards a global rollout other than it is "coming soon".
The developer states, “Our dream is to create great games that as many people as possible play for years and that are remembered forever. Now, for the first time ever, we will officially support two games on PC. We hope the change will bring Clash games closer to more players, and provide Clash players more ways to play.”
Web & PC form a major new move
The move to allow Clash of Clans and Clash Royale to branch out from mobile may be seen as both a major shift and an endorsement of Google Play Games. While releasing on PC has always been possible, it's notable that the developer - famous for its laser focus and smart use of its time and talent - has finally gone with Google Play Games rather than a longstanding service such as Steam.
Both titles bring in big business for Supercell, and the developer has already sought a way to shift their reliance on App Store infrastructure payment systems by opening their own webstore and teaming with Razer Gold.
The question now of course, is whether this is an outlier or the first step towards their entire catalogue becoming available on PC. And, with their own payment structure in place, it'll be interesting to discover how the deal with Google Play Games has been constructed.
And futher afield is this just an experiment that Supercell could back out of? After all, the Finnish mobile giant is known for their pursuit of perfection, even if that means axing their latest creations.
