RIP Google Stadia: the latest news on the discontinued cloud gaming service – The Verge

Google has finally killed the Stadia Bluetooth tool — but this person rescued it

2026-01-20T15:01:21-05:00

Did you save your Google Stadia controller like I told you last month? It's still not too late. This week, Google has finally removed the tool that converts the now-useless controller into a decent Bluetooth gamepad. But there's another way.

Christopher Klay, who previously developed the Stadia Enhanced browser extension, is one of many who saved a copy of the tool to a personal GitHub page. What's more, they're hosting a working copy of that Google website right here to make it even easier.

I haven't tried Klay's mirror, as both of my gamepads are already converted, but here's my video on how easy the process is. It's worth doing now tha …

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Remember Google Stadia? Steam finally made its gamepad worth rescuing

2025-12-12T12:37:43-05:00

The Google Stadia Controller.

December 31st, 2025 is the deadline to save the Google Stadia controller. That's less than three weeks from today - but there's never been a better time. Last month, I discovered the controller is finally a first-class citizen in Steam and SteamOS.

The Stadia controller was originally designed to connect to your Wi-Fi network and remotely control games from Google's cloud servers. But when Stadia shut down in January 2023, the company did an amazing job shutting down the service: it offered full hardware refunds and let you rescue the Stadia Controller by turning it into a generic Bluetooth gamepad instead.

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Google gives Stadia controllers more time to switch to Bluetooth

2023-12-15T13:44:29-05:00

If you haven't enabled Bluetooth on your Stadia controller yet, you don't need to rush. Google has extended the deadline for when its controllers will no longer work wirelessly from the end of this year to December 31st, 2024, as shown on its website (via @wario64).

After Google announced the discontinuation of its Stadia cloud gaming service last year, the company said it would let its controllers live on as wireless Bluetooth gamepads compatible with PCs, Macs, phones, and other systems. It also rolled out a special web-based tool in January that you can use to activate Bluetooth on your Stadia controller.

Google previously gave users un …

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The former chief of Google’s now-shuttered Stadia service reportedly left the company

2023-04-05T12:04:11-04:00

Phil Harrison, who headed up Google's now-shuttered cloud gaming service Stadia, is no longer at Google, according to Business Insider. Stadia was officially shut down in January, and Harrison apparently left at around that same time.

Harrison's quiet departure marks a muted end to his time at the search giant. He joined the company in January 2018, and while he didn't specify what he was working on at the time, it was easy to guess that he was probably doing something with gaming: Harrison worked at Sony Computer Entertainment (now Sony Interactive Entertainment) for 15 years, was on the advisory board for the cloud gaming service Gaikai, …

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Amid layoffs and lost games, Amazon Luna comes to Canada, Germany, and the UK

2023-03-22T14:28:39-04:00

Amazon Luna, the cloud gaming service, is expanding to Canada, Germany, and the UK. I certainly didn't have that on my bingo card.

Remember: Google Stadia is dead as a doornail, and Amazon Luna, the company's rival cloud gaming service, wasn't doing much better. It lost a lot of games, and that was after the UK's Competition and Markets Authority estimated it had less than 5 percent of the cloud gaming market. Oh, also, Amazon's in the middle of layoffs so brutal that even iconic camera review site DPReview is about to shut its doors.

But this? This feels like a sign that the company's planning to take advantage of the gap left by Stadia i …

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Google’s cloud gaming ambitions died with Stadia, exec reveals

2023-03-08T15:49:05-05:00

Two years ago, I wrote a reasonably prescient editorial about how the writing was on the wall for Google's cloud gaming service Stadia - and how the company was now hoping to sell its white label streaming technology to other companies instead of building out its own Netflix of games.

But it seems that, when Google killed off Stadia, it threw away that technology, too.

Google executive Jack Buser has now admitted that the company is no longer offering the white label version of Stadia that allowed companies like AT&T and Capcom to let anyone try games like Batman: Arkham Knight, Control, and a demo of Resident Evil Village for free over th …

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How to activate Bluetooth on your Stadia controller

2023-01-19T08:31:04-05:00

Once the Stadia service goes down on January 18th, 2023, this controller is useless. That is, unless you turn on its Bluetooth mode before the end of the year. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Google has turned off its Stadia cloud game streaming service, but it's giving the wireless Stadia controller a second chance as a Bluetooth controller that can be connected to PCs, Macs, phones, and presumably other devices, too. The change won't happen automatically; it's a manual process that can't be reversed. What's more, you only have until December 31st, ~~2023,~~ 2024 to make the switch to enable Bluetooth wireless. After that date, any unconverted Stadia controller will still work as a wired USB gamepad, but it'll be locked out of playing games wirelessly.

I'm going to walk you through the process for converting your Stadia controller …

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Google Stadia is how you shut down a service right

2025-12-11T15:33:04-05:00

Google Stadia is survived by its gamepad, fans, and its Nvidia and Amazon rivals. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Google made a few mistakes with its Stadia cloud gaming service. Maybe more than a few. Okay, it made a lot of promises it didn't keep and said a lot of things that look pretty laughable in hindsight and totally pulled the rug out from under its indie developers. We did our best to warn you!

And yet, I don't think Stadia will be remembered poorly now it's gone - because in the end, Google did right by its customers. Pay attention, rival companies: this is how you shut down a service right.

I can't remember a company ever trying so hard to erase its mistakes: Stadia users got full hardware and software refunds, save game transfers, even a f …

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Google’s Stadia Controller Bluetooth support is available now

2023-01-17T13:37:08-05:00

Google's Stadia Controller Bluetooth support tool is now live, allowing all Stadia controllers to connect to PCs and other devices with Bluetooth Low Energy. Google's tool to update Stadia controllers works over the web using Chrome, so it should work for both Windows and macOS users without the need to download an app.

The tool itself will disable the proprietary Wi-Fi connectivity on the Stadia Controller and replace it with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) instead. That means if you want to use Stadia for one final time today or tomorrow, you'll need to wait to run the update, as it'll disable the controller's connectivity with Google's server …

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Google’s Stadia controller is getting Bluetooth support

2023-01-13T16:23:17-05:00

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.

"Worm Game is a humble title we used to test many of Stadia's features, starting well before our 2019 public launch, right through 2022," says Google in its listing for the newly published title. "It won't win Game of the Ye …

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