Having spent the bulk of my handheld gaming time with the Steam Deck, it was a bit of a shock last year to discover that PC gaming isn’t just possible on Android phones and retro handhelds, it’s powering on in leaps and bounds.
I’ve seen so many different games running beautifully, from older AAA titles like Tomb Raider and Prey (2017), all the way to more demanding ones like RDR2 and even Cyberpunk 2077 (no surprise that the last one is still an imperfect experience, as things stand…but it is possible!).
GameNative lets you play all manner of PC games on Android from GOG, Epic, and Steam.
I reached out to my friend Utkarsh, who is the lead developer of GameNative to ask if he wanted to share his story and let me interview him.
His background in development and gaming through to how GameNative started and is built, all the way to what the future might bring for his program. This is an interview on what I think might be at least part of the future of handheld gaming, and I hope you find this interesting:
https://gardinerbryant.com/i-genuinely-feel-gamenative-could-replace-handheld-pcs/


Fuck android, last thing I want is more locked down devices bloated and filled with spyware.
GameNative is open-source, free, and 100% spyware free.
What on earth?! I’m confused, are you saying GameNative is locked down, bloated and filled with spyware? Or that users who are running Android shouldn’t have something that is open-source and spyware free? Just checking for some clarification here, since your rant seems a bit…off-topic.
He’s saying that Android is locked down bloated and filled with spyware.
I think it was the steamdeck comparison that is drawing this response, as gamers finally have a device that isn’t restricted to a single OS and is completely under the users control.
What’s the alternative? Keep in mind: we’re talking about a primary phone used for calls, texts, navigation, banking, payments, photography, and social media.