While gaming service Stadia shuts down on January 18, Google has announced plans to keep its controller alive. It might not seem like a whole list of cloud streaming games becoming inaccessible, but the controller was actually the quiet highlight of Google’s first big step into gaming.
While full details haven’t been revealed yet, Google said on Twitter that it will be releasing “a self-service tool to enable Bluetooth connections on your Stadia controller.” Google has promised to share specifics in time for the shutdown.
Currently, the Stadia gamepad can only connect to Google’s platform. Until these recently announced plans, the controller would have been a wasteful chunk of plastic, nickel and silicon destined for landfill when it ceased service on January 18. It now appears that you’ll be able to use the controller with other Bluetooth-enabled devices – PC and Android, most likely; Maybe Apple devices and even PS5, Xbox Series X | S and Nintendo Switch.
We’ve also got Bluetooth news: Next week we’ll be releasing a self-serve tool for enabling Bluetooth connections on your Stadia controller. We will share the details here when released. pic.twitter.com/6vYomngfmAJanuary 13, 2023
Beginning of the End
in a post (opens in new tab)Last September, Stadia general manager Phil Harrison announced that: “While Stadia’s vision for streaming games to consumers was built on a strong technology foundation, it has not gained the traction with users we had hoped for so we Have made the difficult decision to begin shutting down our Stadia streaming service.”
It appears Google has the money to ride out its wobbly baby years
The news came spontaneously, not because Stadia had been a tremendous success, but because Google had the money to shore up its faltering infant years. Perhaps Google would have made Stadia a success just through bullheadedness, as Epic has done with the Epic Games Store. Instead, in the face of competition from the likes of Microsoft Xbox cloud gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now, Google opted to close up shop.
Harrison also confirmed in the post that Google will refund “all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia Store”.
The other good news for players was that games like Orcs Must Die 3, which originally launched as a Google Stadia exclusive, made their way to other platforms, so we’re not going to lose access to everything Stadia brings. were not
best worst case
The device will become an awkward ergonomic relic of the perils of launching a cloud gaming service
While it was good news that Google wasn’t leaving Stadia’s early adopters out of pocket, buyers will be stuck with perfectly good hardware that will no longer be usable. As our own Rhys Wood said at the time, “Google clearly poured a lot of resources into researching and developing a controller for Stadia. All this effort that now, sadly, may be in vain.
“At a glance, the Google Stadia controller doesn’t look special. It has a similar silhouette to the Nintendo Switch Pro controller or the slightly slimmer Xbox 360 pad. But, in my hands, the Stadia controller just feels… OK.
“It’s a surprisingly comfortable controller to hold. Its buttons and stick are high-quality to the touch. And I love the sturdy collection of shortcut buttons in the pad’s center that let you easily capture screenshots, voice- Allows access to Google Assistant for navigation based and much more.
This is great news, that the controller will get a new lease on life. However, I doubt Google will start re-stocking gamepads to sell them only as third-party controllers. The device would turn out to be an awkward ergonomic relic of the perils of launching a cloud gaming service in competition with Microsoft and Sony.
in doubt
It’s great that Google could return everything Stadia’s early adopters earned through it, but it was under no obligation to make good
The modest rise and rapid decline of Google Stadia is a stark reminder that we have less control over the games we buy, as the videogame market turns digital-first. It’s great that Google could return everything earned through Stadia’s early adopters, but it was under no obligation to make good.
Google could have just as easily shut down the servers and walked away, not doing any work to make its controller usable on other services, or failing to work with developers to allow players to port their games to Stadia. Can transfer save files from Steam to Steam – as it has done with Gearbox’s Borderlands 3.
Steam, the Xbox Marketplace, the PlayStation Store, Nintendo’s eShop and the Epic Games Store all look too big to shut down, but there’s no guarantee that one day the digital store owners won’t hit financial crunch and shut down the servers . On that day, you could lose access to every game you’ve bought over the years, without any of the protections that come with owning a physical copy of a game. However, admittedly since games rely more heavily on online features, even a physical disc does not guarantee long-term ownership of a game.
Well, all this good news about the Stadia controller has really got me down a dark and dreary path. What can I say other than hug your loved ones and back up your saved files?