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Stadia Bluetooth Mode

stadia.google.com

31–40 of 98 posts

Re: Stadia Bluetooth Mode

#31
Just did this update on my controller. Pretty cool process, it recognized the controller didnt have enough battery to continue and denied the update. After it charged for a bit, it was all pretty straight forward. Now to find the other controllers I got around the house and get them done.

Had to use Chrome to do all the updating though.

Re: Stadia Bluetooth Mode

#32

Credit to Google, they didn't have to do this. Especially after issuing refunds for hardware already.

On the other hand, they made it a WebUSB process instead of a standalone firmware, so when they take this update server down, any further controllers found at a garage-sale or whatever can't be updated.

A cookie for whoever's the first to snarf the firmware in-flight and whip up a standalone updater.

Re: Stadia Bluetooth Mode

#33
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it’s all on Google. The customers get a say too. Most gamers said no, so the product failed.

It's circular though - I think a lot of gamers said no because they knew that Google could kill the service, and in this case everything they bought would disappear forever. I didn't want to invest in such an ecosystem. So it's a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point.

We all remember PlaysForSure™.

Re: Stadia Bluetooth Mode

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Target market = people who: (I) like to play computer games (II) haven’t already invested in hardware and a library (II) aren’t sensitive to latency. Not exactly surprising that it didn’t take off.

I can't even tolerate the latency of playing my PS5 one room over. Can't see how it'd be any fun to play a game hosted hundreds of miles away.

Weirdly enough, a lot of the latency doesn't seem to be all network related, but rather encoder/decoder and pacing related. I can't play games on the same LAN over Moonlight/Parsec without noticing the severe drop in responsiveness, but I can barely notice when using GeForce Now. Shadow and Xbox Cloud Streaming are basically unplayable again though.

Re: Stadia Bluetooth Mode

#35

Credit to Google, they didn't have to do this. Especially after issuing refunds for hardware already.

This is the most graceful shutdown of a Google product that I've seen in quite a while. Full, automatic refunds for game and hardware purchases, downloads for savegames, and software updates to remove hardware dependence on external servers before they shutdown.

I can't think of much else they could have done to make things smoother for customers, short of not shutting it down at all of course. (And undoubtedly, the fact that they are killing yet another product is inescapable, and doesn't help their reputation for doing that.)

Re: Stadia Bluetooth Mode

#36

This is really, really good of them. They could have just made this into more e-waste.

Fwiw, the controller already worked like a controller if you hooked it up through a USB cable.

The Bluetooth functionality is nice, though. I've gone through the process and for what it was (putting a controller into flash mode, then flashing a new bootloader(?), then flashing Bluetooth firmware) it was a very smooth process.

Especially for a browser-based process. I may not like the direction WebUSB is taking browsers, but the process was quite smooth and will work on pretty much any device with a USB port (except for platforms like iOS that limit browser availability).

Re: Stadia Bluetooth Mode

#37
post #19

Heh, the store still has the listing, but no models available: https://store.google.com/config/g1q35w?hl=en-US&pli=1 Anyone know if it's possible to buy one anywhere? I recall hearing that it was a decent controller.

There are quite a few on eBay

Re: Stadia Bluetooth Mode

#38
post #6
post #2

Google has become impressively good at killing their own products. It's just unfortunate they can't support things enough to get them off the ground in the first place.

I don’t think it’s all on Google. The customers get a say too. Most gamers said no, so the product failed.

This product specifically is DOA. Its userbase is too niche. Gamers are not found of latency and this product is very much latency. I used something like stadia called OnLive in 2012 and while very neat, I preferred gaming on my system or PC.

Re: Stadia Bluetooth Mode

#39
post #35

Credit to Google, they didn't have to do this. Especially after issuing refunds for hardware already.

This is the most graceful shutdown of a Google product that I've seen in quite a while. Full, automatic refunds for game and hardware purchases, downloads for savegames, and software updates to remove hardware dependence on external servers before they shutdown. I can't think of much else they could have done to make things smoother for customers, short of not shutting it down at all of course. (And undoubtedly, the…

If only they had said beforehand that's going to be their shutdown process they probably wouldn't have had to shut it down..

Re: Stadia Bluetooth Mode

#40
post #17

Credit to Google, they didn't have to do this. Especially after issuing refunds for hardware already.

It could also be a way of covering their asses. Big tech ends up in courts all the time these days, I wouldn't be surprised if creating a bunch of e-waste out of 1 to 3-year-old controllers would be brought up at some point

It's not e-waste because the controllers work over USB already.
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