Developer Rescues Stadia Bluetooth Tool That Google Killed

This week, Google finally shut down the official Stadia Bluetooth conversion tool... but there's no need to panic! Developer Christopher Klay preserved a copy on his personal GitHub and is hosting a fully working version of the tool on a dedicated website to make it even easier to find. The Verge's Sean Hollister reports: 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 that the pads work relatively well with Steam! I maintain that while Google made a lot of mistakes, it's an amazing example of shutting down a service the right way.

Google killed something that I had never heard of

[rossdee]

That's not unusual, of course.
But apparantly one of the original developers doesn't want it to die.

AFAIK Stadia is a greek unit of length, maybe once around the track in the original olympics?

Re:

[Elektroschock]

Sorry, what is this tool even for?

Re:

[Tolaris]

Google Stadia controllers originally communicated directly to Stadia with wifi. When Google shut down the Stadia service, they published a tool for converting controllers to work over bluetooth as a normal controller device. This allows us to reuse these controllers instead of sending them to landfill.

Re:

[sabbede]

Playing games. So, it's more of a game controller than a tool. In that it is a game controller, and not a tool as we would normally conceive.

Re:

[swillden]

That's not unusual, of course.

Nope. Google is all about the big hits. Unless everyone knows about it, it's not big enough to be worthwhile for them. And mostly they don't advertise. There are exceptions but in general if products can't get to 100M users with word-of-mouth, it's not something Google wants to continue.

Here's the context: Stadia was a Google game-streaming platform. Games ran on servers in the cloud, and streamed through a Google TV dongle device to your TV. So buying a Stadia kit meant getting a dongle and one or t

Worth it for the hardware.

[OriolFM]

I have two controllers, both converted. Since I have them I use them (either with cable or wireless) before I even consider grabbing my old Logitech F710. The sensitivity of the controllers, the vibration, and being able to be recharged while playing via cable make them the better choice.

Preserving the tool in case someone needs it is the right move.

I still think that it's a pity they shut down Stadia, but at least, as the post says, they did it the right way and made it possible to repurpose the hard

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Well, they did it almost the right way. What's it cost them to maintain a static page and provide downloads of this tool? The answer is roughly jack shit, yet they took it down anyway.

Re:

[paulatz]

I have a few of them, since you could buy them for 20 euros after Google flooded the market with them, now they are becoming a rarity and expensive again for some reason. I think they are good quality, but the gum on the sticks shreds a bit, leaving an annoying black residue on my thumbs!