Google will shut down Stadia on January 18. Regarding the controller, the company undertakes to unleash it by unlocking Bluetooth, which was too restricted. The controller will thus be able to be used wirelessly beyond Stadia.
It is on January 18 that Stadia will definitively close its doors, acknowledging Google’s failure in cloud gaming – but the American company has dug its own grave by not putting all the chances on its side. It is still a service from the Mountain View firm which is sent to the cemetery, among so many others neglected over the years.
Google will unlock Bluetooth in Stadia controllers
There is, however, a device that will not be buried with Stadia on January 18: the controller. In a comment on January 13, a Google employee took the stage to talk about the controller’s Bluetooth functionality. Good news: a utility will be offered very soon to allow owners to activate the Bluetooth connection.
” Many of you have expressed a desire to enable Bluetooth on the Stadia Controller. We have good news: next week, we’ll be releasing a self-service tool to enable Bluetooth connections on your Stadia controller. We will communicate the details of the activation of this feature to you next week. “, is it indicated.
The announcement of the closure of Stadia, at the end of September (while Google promised not to close it a few months earlier, in February and August), led to a host of questions (on the reimbursement of video games, on backups of the parties and on the possibilities of transfer to other platforms). The controller is no exception either.
Indeed, the Stadia controller only uses the Bluetooth connection for the configuration phase – it then connects directly to Wi-Fi, to lower latency as much as possible. Admittedly, it is also possible to use it with a USB-C cable, but this greatly restricts the capabilities of the controller, all because of a clamped chip.
The controller therefore risked becoming partially unusable. Admittedly, clever little guys have shown resourcefulness in finding tips for escaping this technical restriction. But that put the public’s shoulders to fend for themselves. However, not everyone is an expert in tinkering and hacking. It’s good that Google is unlocking its controller, giving everyone the ability to use it wirelessly beyond Stadia.
