Remember Google Stadia? Steam finally made its gamepad worth rescuing
TL;DR
The Google Stadia controller can now be fully used with Steam and SteamOS, making it a great time to rescue it before the December 31st, 2025 deadline. Originally designed for cloud gaming, it was converted to a Bluetooth gamepad after Stadia's shutdown.
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.
@verge Want to save a great g …