A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia. And 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.
We’re grateful to the dedicated Stadia players that have been with us from the start. We will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store. Players will continue to have access to their games library and play through January 18, 2023 so they can complete final play sessions. We expect to have the majority of refunds completed by mid-January, 2023.
Another Google product announced with much fanfare is shutting down, as many, many people expected it would be. It seems Google is at least handling the refunds properly, and I hope the Stadia controllers can still be used with other platforms so they don’t turn into e-waste.
Another one for the graveyard.
Thom Holwerda,
According to these links, the stadia controllers implement a standard USB HID device, so they can be used wired. However wireless functionality is locked into google’s service.
https://www.androidheadlines.com/how-to-use-the-stadia-controller-with-pc-games.html
https://www.howtogeek.com/712967/how-to-use-a-stadia-controller-with-another-platform/
Given that it is a wireless controller, some owners may consider a controller without wireless functionality to be as good as dead for them. Google could release a final update to unlock full functionality, however my gut feeling is that google will not unlock these controllers to work wirelessly outside of stadia.
It’s more likely for google to follow its past precedent and just let the hardware die with the service.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/05/revolv-devices-bricked-google-nest-smart-home
Of everything you posted there, the nest thing makes me irritated the most. Not at Google, but at the users who continue to buy into services but thinking they’re buying hardware. How many times do they have to be warned?
Under-phil,
I hear that and agree….but sometimes the dependencies are completely undisclosed and unfortunately such hardware is becoming more prolific. It’s a huge problem for for users who are well informed.
I bought a wireless light set for use while camping, fully expecting the bluetooth to work locally. To my dismay, the light set required full internet connectivity and could only be controlled through a service over the internet. It stops working if I firewall it and when I’m camping it doesn’t work either, which was my whole reason for wanting it.
In another instance I bought a bluetooth multimeter because I wanted the ability to take readings from a distance. Once again I thought bluetooth meant that I could use it locally. Low and behold the app phones home and won’t open if it doesn’t authenticate with a remote server. Damn the companies responsible for this!
In these cases it’s not that I was ignorant to the risks of being dependent on remote servers. It’s that these dependencies are never disclosed and even in hindsight there were no red flags for me to know it would have been the case. The first I learned about the tethering was once I had the product in hand. In the past “bluetooth” implied local control, but it’s not a sure thing anymore. It has gotten much harder to determine what hardware can be locally controlled before ordering it. Unfortunately I think it’s just going to get worse with users increasingly having to guess whether a device is controlled by someone other than the owner.
self,
I kind of misspoke in saying “well informed”. What I meant was that it is a huge problem for users who want to be well informed but aren’t because of the lack of proper disclosure before buying a product.
In the absence of a central resource, I wish reviewers would include this type of info in their reviews. It would make for very dull reading, but might incentivise companies to do better.
At a minimum I generally want to know (but often don’t):-
1. Does it rely on external services.
2. What’s the earliest sunset date for those services.
3. How long are security updates guaranteed.
4. What Terms of Service is the user required to accept in order to use it.
flypig,
In complete agreement.
2 and 3 would require all manufacturers to be more forthcoming than I think they want to be. So unless they can be legally compelled, I think that’s wishful thinking. But 1 and 4 might be information that buyers could crowd source assuming we were well organized. I’d even be willing to set up a website for this myself if I thought people would use it. Do you think they would given that I’ve got zero budget for promotion and users would have to contribute the data before it becomes useful? It’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem.
Still, I’d be willing to try and set something up if there’s interest beyond just myself.
Alfman,
Not sure what will happen, but there is a strong demand to enable Bluetooth or Wifi functionality on these devices.
But of course the best outcome would be an unlocked boot loader and open source firmware. But personally I would give it much lower chances in comparison.
sukru,
Enabling it to be used as a bluetooth peripheral is a good solution. Apparently it already uses bluetooth, but currently it’s just used to configure the stadia connection. Clearly google could fix this if they wanted to, but they probably just want to shut it all down without dedicating any more engineering effort for the benefit of owners who aren’t going to use it for stadia.
I agree the chances are low. I do think that would be ideal though, the FOSS community could give these controllers an extended life beyond what google wants to.
Alfman,
As much as I would be glad if bluetooth happened, there are two potential blockers.
First is the actual bluetooth capabilities. A game controller will need stable and low latency connection. I don’t know whether the chip inside can do that.
Second is whether the team will stay or move on. Obviously someone needs to prioritize and work on that feature.
Personally, I would be very happy to see it happen. Not only I have several controllers myself, it would also mean there would be a lasting memory of the team. They have spent a lot of time and did great things on the technical level.
sukru,
The bluetooth 4.2 specs used by stadia should be more than enough and I imagine it’s the same chip responsible for wifi & bluetooth. Even just unlocking the wifi functionality would be something since at least a PC driver could be created.
Honestly I don’t believe further development will have any priority whatsoever. In all likelihood stadia’s development team will be disbanded very quickly if it hasn’t already been. Unlocking/open sourcing would be the best path forward, but I don’t even think that’s likely. We’ll see though, obviously I’m just speculating and my pessimism speaks louder than my optimism, haha.
Yeah, there are so many defunct projects we look back on fondly. It’s human nature 🙂
I only know one person who bought into Stadia and he wound up abandoning it because it just wasn’t up to par. I’m skeptical there is any real `strong demand` because I haven’t seen any supporting evidence. Not generally anyways but maybe there’s a small group of users who are passionate about it. I’ve seem some people remark that the wireless latency is slightly better when compared to old version xbox one controllers. If that’s true, I doubt it’s the case with xbox series controllers, and I question whether it’s meaningful at all in real use. I know gamers like to think of themselves as hyper-senistive, with the ability to detect even the slightest millisecond latency or fps gains ….. Maybe a very small handful of people possess that superpower but for most it’s nothing you’d want to bet your life on.
friedchicken,
There were three things that were going well for the Stadia controller latency.
First, it would skip the local device, and connect directly to Stadia servers over WiFi. This is a small step, but avoid “controller action -> bluetooth -> local device -> wifi -> remote servers” trip.
Second, it used “negative latency”:
https://venturebeat.com/business/how-google-stadias-negative-latency-might-work/
Third, it was a pretty good controller.
But of course all these are moot given the service is shutting down. Maybe except the last one if we can get the bluetooth functionality.
What a shame. I enjoyed playing Cyberpunk 2077 using Stadia.
IMO Stadia is technology released too early for the public. Not there yet in the convergence ladder.
Is anyone honesty surprised here? This outcome was predictable the moment Stadia was more than just talk. The service being terminated and the hardware committed to the e-waste pile for the most part – sounds about right. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for the controllers bluetooth to be unlocked. Maybe that can become somebodies pet project to figure out but Google freely handing that to users isn’t likely.
I bought the Stadia controller + Chromecast Ultra on sale for 30 dollars, mostly for the gamepad, as I also got the Google TV version of the Chromecast. As things stand I’ve never actually used it, but I just checked and it turns out the Stadia app is needed in order to set it up for wireless use! Luckily it’s still up for download, but who knows how long? Just an FYI to anyone else in a similar situation..