The Stadia gaming software will be shutting down on January 18 and the brand began refunding a few things months ago(and the refund process is still ongoing). Meanwhile, Google mentioned (indirectly) that the Stadia controller will be the parting gift for the shutdown of Stadia but there’s more.
Further details on the Stadia controller
It has been confirmed that the Stadia controller will be getting Bluetooth support with the latest update from the brand. We’re not exactly certain how the brand is going to achieve this feat but more details should be dropping next week(according to Google). When the Stadia controller was launched with the Stadia gaming software back in 2019, the controller only supported a WiFi connection on which you will enter a pairing code on the device you’re playing Stadia on.
“In addition, many of you have expressed the desire to enable Bluetooth on the Stadia controller. We have some good news: next week we’ll be releasing a self-serve tool to enable Bluetooth connections on your Stadia Controller. We’ll share details next week on how to enable this feature.”
According to Google, the controller was going to reduce the input latency when streaming games. And so far so good, folks at 9to5google have had a seamless experience, fair enough – but the Bluetooth connection was lacking, well, not anymore. For over three years now, folks have always been all about Bluetooth support for the controller but it seemed Google turned deaf ears to it, so it’s more like a surprise now.
Meanwhile (as mentioned earlier), the brand is refunding a few packages so you should do well to check your emails and follow the due refund process as well to get yours.