Stadia gives its controller a second chance at life with Bluetooth compatibility
The Google video game streaming platform is ending service this week, but they’ve announced the launch of a tool to make their controller compatible with other devices.
Stadia, the video game streaming platform created by Google a couple of years ago, is closing down definitively this coming wednesday January 18, 2023, ending its gaming-on-demand service. But luckily for the users that bought their Stadia controller, instead of it becoming an expensive paper weight its developers have announced that they’ll be launching a tool to make the pad compatible with Bluetooth, giving it a second chance at life after its tenure with the service.
The Stadia controller will live on
“We've also got Bluetooth news: next week we'll be releasing a self-serve tool to enable Bluetooth connections on your Stadia Controller. We'll share details here on release,” reads Stadia’s official statement about the situation. It’s actually been a few months since the company announced the closing of its servers for the beginning of 2023, and Google had already mentioned they were working on some sort of solution to be able to use the controller with other devices without the need for a wired connection.
Google has also updated the Stadia games catalog with a new title just a few days before its closure. It’s a small interactive experience called Worm Game released as a thank you note for the community that kept playing in the Stadia microcosm. The description for the game can be found in the official Stadia website, and it reads: “Play the game that came to Stadia before Stadia came to the world. “Worm Game” is a humble title we used to test many of Stadia’s features, starting well before our 2019 public launch, right through 2022. It won’t win Game of the Year, but the Stadia team spent a LOT of time playing it, and we thought we’d share it with you. Thanks for playing, and for everything:”
Stadia’s closure marks the end of another attempt by a big tech company to make their way into the video game industry in a big disruptive manner. This time, it was a strong effort at offering a technology that still doesn’t have the required support to compete against traditional formats.
Source | Stadia