With Google finally shutting down its cloud gaming service for good, a lot of Stadia users have been issued refunds for their digital purchases (and eligible hardware purchases as well), although many are left with first-party hardware in the form of the Stadia controller. While the peripheral originally worked primarily using a Wi-Fi connection, Google has given users an online update which will allow them to use the controller as a regular Bluetooth game controller.
If you have a Stadia controller with you and would like to use it with a smartphone or laptop for example, then Google has provided some easy-to-follow steps which we’ve detailed below. For this one, you’ll need the Stadia controller, a computer with Google Chrome version 108 (or later), and a USB cable.
To get started, you’ll need to press and hold the Stadia button on your controller until the status light turns on, after which you’ll have to plug the controller into the computer via a USB cable. While plugged in, you’ll need to head to Google Chrome and open the following url: stadia.google.com/controller.
Once there, the website will present you with a short series of additional steps, which will involved an extra software download, as well as keying in specific button combinations on your controller. Afterwards, you’ll be asked to disconnect the controller from the USB cable, after which it will automatically turn off.
Following this, you will need to press and hold the Stadia button again until the status light turns orange, which means that it is in pairing mode (in case the status light doesn’t pulse orange, hold the Stadia button and “Y” simultaneously for 2 seconds). You can then open your laptop or phone’s Bluetooth menu, and then select the device with “Stadia” in its name. Once connected, the controller’s status light should glow white.
Once the entire update process is completed, the controller should be able to pair with other Bluetooth-compatible hardware. Additionally, users should also know that they’ll only have until the end of 2023 to do this, in which case you might want to try and act fast to grab the update within the timeframe.
Launched back in 2019, Stadia was promoted by Google as a convenient new way to play video games, as the technology would no longer require users to wait for long periods to download games, offering an on-demand game-streaming service of sorts. Unfortunately, a series of roadblocks as well as a loack of traction heavily affected the platform’s profitability, and Google announced in September of 2022 that it would finally close down the service.
With that said, the service is essentially outlived by competing services, such as Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming platform, NVIDIA’s GeFORCE service, and even Amazon Luna.
