The best thing to come out of Google Stadia will live on after the service dies

techradar.com:

While gaming service Stadia shuts down on January 18, Google has announced plans to keep its controller alive. It may not seem like much in light of a whole catalog of cloud streaming games becoming inaccessible, but the controller really was the quiet highlight of Google’s first major step into gaming.

While it’s not revealed the full details yet, Google said on Twitter that it will “be releasing a self-serve tool to enable Bluetooth connections on your Stadia Controller.” Google has promised to share the specifics in time for the shutdown.

Currently, the Stadia gamepad can only connect to Google’s platform. Until these recently announced plans, when the service shuts down on January 18, the controller would have become a useless hunk of plastic, nickel, and silicon destined for landfill. Now it appears you will be able to use the controller with other Bluetooth-enabled devices – PC and Android, most likely; maybe Apple devices and even the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

We've also got Bluetooth news: next week we'll be releasing a self-serve tool to enable Bluetooth connections on your Stadia Controller. We'll share details here on release. pic.twitter.com/6vYomngfmAJanuary 13, 2023

In a post(opens in new tab), last September, Stadia’s general manager Phil Harrison announced that: “while Stadia's approach to streaming games for consumers was built on a strong technology foundation, it hasn't gained the traction with users that we expected so we’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service.”.

Google appeared to have the money to ride out its stumbling infant years

The news came out of the blue, not because Stadia had been a roaring success but because Google appeared to have