You will be able to reuse your device thanks to a Bluetooth certification that users have been waiting for.
It’s time for Google to say goodbye to Stadia: the streaming video game service is closing its doors on January 18. So there are only 48 hours left to live for this “revolutionary” experience which has not been able to prove itself. It may be a little early to democratize cloud gaming, some will say. Even in 2023, not everyone is connected to a very high speed connection allowing them to take full advantage of the advantages of this new way of playing. In the future, this kind of service could however prove to be very useful to avoid download times and saturated discs. While Sony is considering its own approach to cloud gaming, Google is preparing Stadia’s funeral.
To leave with dignity, the service offers a last game available now. Don’t wait for a triple A still kept secret, it’s about Worm Game, a copy of Snake that served as test software for the service during its development. It is therefore the genesis of Stadia that users can discover a few hours before its disappearance. It’s almost poetic.
You might have seen one last game arrive on Stadia today. It’s a humble 🧡 thanks 💜 for playing from our team.
Find it here: https://t.co/PyAUH181v1
— Stadia ☁️🎮 (@GoogleStadia) January 13, 2023
Now that users have been reimbursed for their Stadia kits and their game catalogs, there remains an angry question: what about the controller? Indeed, Google has not decided to recover and recycle the dedicated device. Although it was possible to plug it in to enjoy it on other platforms, wireless connectivity was previously reserved for the streaming service. Do not panic, the future of your controller is assured and we explain the next steps.
One update to rule them all
Last Saturday, the Stadia controller has finally received approval from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, the body in charge of standards and licenses for this connectivity. To put it simply, the device will finally be able to deploy its potential. For this, Google intends to publish a final update in the coming days to activate this feature which has remained dormant until now.
Details should reach affected subscribers soon. However, it’s a safe bet that you just have to connect the controller to a wifi network, as it has been for the (short) life of the service. This ending may be sad, but this Stadia accessory will now turn into a collector’s item tracing a piece of video game history: something to console collectors!
