Google’s Stadia Controller is getting Bluetooth support

Tom Warren, writing for the Verge:

Google is launching its final Stadia game today and is promising to release a tool next week to enable Bluetooth connections on its Stadia Controller. The last Stadia game to launch on the service is Worm Game, a test game that was technically available on Stadia before Stadia launched publicly in November 2019. Developers at Google have decided to release the game just before the streaming service disappears next week.

Alongside the new game, Google is also committing to enabling Bluetooth on Stadia controllers. Google Stadia owners will be pleased to hear there’s a self-serve tool coming next week that will enable Bluetooth on the Stadia Controller. “We’ll share details next week on how to enable this feature,” says a Google Stadia community manager in a forum post.

Google originally launched the Stadia Controller as a device that connects directly to Stadia services and had the Bluetooth chip disabled. After news broke of the Stadia shutdown, fans have been finding ways to save the controller from an e-waste fate by using workarounds to connect it wirelessly to other devices.

Workarounds like connecting to an Android device will no longer be required thanks to this new tool. It means that most Stadia players that purchased a Founders or Premiere edition will have been effectively gifted a free Bluetooth controller thanks to Google’s refunds.

Google Stadia is shutting down on January 18th at 11:59PM PT / 2:59AM ET on January 19th. Google has been refunding all Stadia software purchases from its streaming store and even hardware purchases made from the Google Store and expects most to be processed by the January 18th shutdown dat