Google announced yesterday that it will shut down Stadia in January. The good news is that refunds will be given to everyone who bought all Stadia hardware, including its controller, so long as they bought it from the Google Store. You don’t have to return the controller to get the refund (see the platform’s FAQ page), but it doesn’t have to go to waste just because Stadia is shutting down.
Users in the Stadia subreddit have been asking Google to make the firmware for the Stadia controller open source so that it would work on PC and consoles even after its namesake platform has been put out to pasture (per Eurogamer). Though Google won’t be able to do that in an official capacity anytime soon, software engineer Parth Shah created a workaround tool that allows players to use the controller wirelessly over Wi-Fi.
The first thing you need to do is download Python 3 if you don’t have it already, then download version 1.2.0 from the releases page on GitHub. To run the server, just download the preinstalled zip file and run server.exe. Right-click on the icon in the System Tray and you’ll see the website you need to access — in this case, Gamepad Tester. Open Gamepad Tester on your phone, plug in the Stadia controller, and remap the buttons to mimic the controller of your favorite console, such as Xbox Series X/S or PS5.
If set up correctly, the trick will allow you to connect your controller to a device over Wi-Fi. You’ll need to be plugged into a phone to do so, so it’s not fully wireless, but it’s a workaround for anyone who doesn’t want to run a wire all the way to a device on an entertainment center. The workaround won’t be affected by Stadia’s shutdown as it doesn’t connect to Google’s servers to function. At the moment, the trick only works on Windows devices.
You can check out the demo video Shah posted in July to get a better idea of how to set up the workaround.
While we don’t know if and when Google will officially provide the source code for the Stadia controller’s use outside of its own platform, Shah’s fix should suffice for now. Either way, it’s better than leaving the controller in a landfill or biting the dust.
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