The Stadia controller is getting an update with general bluetooth support.
Ron AmadeoJanuary 16, 2023 6:46 PM UTC
enlarge/ It’s like it never happened.
Aurich Lawson / Getty Images Google Stadia is scheduled to go live this week. The service will be terminated on January 18th, and while a large number of developers will be dumped and hours of game progress will be lost afterwards, the shutdown of Stadia is proceeding as smoothly as possible. After refunding every game purchased through the service, Google is now answering calls to open up the service’s controller so it can function as a universal Bluetooth device after Stadia is discontinued. In a post on the official Stadia forums, a community manager wrote on Friday: “Next week we will release a self-service tool to enable Bluetooth connectivity on your Stadia controller. Next week we will share information on how to Enable the details feature for this feature.” Let the controller Bringing it back to life is the last thing people ask for once Stadia shuts down. As a Stadia product, the controller takes a unique approach of connecting directly to the internet via Wi-Fi, rather than the usual method of connecting to whatever device you’re playing on and then to the internet. Presumably, this is a way to shave a few milliseconds off the latency inherent in game streaming. Nowhere else in the world are Wi-Fi video game controllers used, so once the Stadia servers are down, the controllers become electronic waste. If you plug it into your computer via USB, it can technically be used as a universal controller, but nobody needs a wired controller anymore.
enlarge/ Stadia controllers are popular, and maybe we’ll see a big sale soon.
Google’s product listings are always pre-description control There is a Bluetooth chip in the device, although it states that “Bluetooth Classic is not enabled at this time.” All the pieces were put together to save the controller from the trash, and now Google promises to do just that with a firmware update. Ars’ Senior Game Editor in our Stadia review Kyle Orland called the controller “one of the highlights of the Stadia launch package” and said it “has solid, well-balanced weight; comfortable, clickable face buttons and analog sticks; D-pad and shoulder triggers and a powerful, distinctive rumble motor.” Sales of Stadia were far below expectations, and the controllers had been piling up in warehouses for years—all Stadia controllers had the date of manufacture stamped on the back, and all Known models were all built during the 2019 initial manufacturing run. These controllers were originally pulled from stores after the closure was announced, but now that they’re getting a second life, we’ll be looking for a big sale.
Last game on Stadia,
Worm Game . See how blurry and ugly this looks.
Oh… I just hit 600mb/s on a speed test so I don’t think it’s me, but whatever.
Snaking. Lag is horrible.
menu text is another example of how blurry and ugly it can look. It never really goes away.
Google announced that not only will the controller be getting an update, but…a new game? Yes, on Friday, with about four days to go, Stadia got a new game. It’s called
Worms Game
, and was used as a testbed for the development of Stadia. You can now play for free! Here’s how Google describes the game:
Play Stadia before coming to the world Gaming to Stadia.
Worm Games
is an obscure title we’ll use to test many of Stadia’s features, starting before our public launch in 2019 and running through 2022. It’s not going to 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. Thank you for participating, for all you do. The Worms Game
is just a classic game Clone Snake. This is an overhead view of a snake that can move in four directions, grows bigger each time it eats an apple, and the goal is not to hit anything.
Worm Game Actually a good reminder of why Stadia’s service is so bad. I tried the game and it immediately told me my 600mb/s connection was “unstable”. Gameplay is also blurry throughout, like a low-resolution YouTube video. The lag inherent in game streaming makes responsive games like Snake Feels awful, you spend a lot of time trying to figure out how early you have to press One button sharp turn. This simple 2D game may only be a few MB, and any device can install it in under a minute, or run it directly in the browser without installation. Instead, streaming it over the Internet can eat up gigabytes of data. Just compare Stadia’s Worm Game to the version embedded in Google Search, the “native” search version is much better.
As for some other Stadia bits and pieces: if you have Any data on the service, some games will let you move your game data to other platforms. 9to5Google has a good overview of which games support data export. Former Microsoft and Sony executive Phil Harrison, who joined Google as “Vice President of Stadia,” is still technically employed by Google. Unless Google has other gaming projects he could take on, you have to wonder what his future at the company holds. Maybe we’ll see an announcement on that Wednesday.
