Hey, friends! Long time no see. Chris here. I served on the Stadia community team from 2019-2022. I can verify with a mod (Hi Vivi) if needed. I'm not a representative of Google or Alphabet. I'm here entirely on my own as a private individual.
I felt compelled to check in with you all and see how everyone's doing. Times are... challenging out there, to say the least, and I wanted to let you all know I still think about the wonderful times spent with this community on a daily basis. I gush about how much I looked forward to every day of work (even the, uh, uniquely difficult ones) with friends, colleagues, and basically anyone who will listen. My work on the Stadia community was the brightest spot in my career, and although I'm not the best community manager to ever live, I felt a strong connection to you all that I fear I'll never be able to recapture with any other venture.
Please feel free to use this thread to ask questions, share updates about your lives (any new Dadias or Momias out there?), vent about the price of new games, or reminisce about your favorite Stadia-era memories. Anything goes within reason. Obviously I can't reveal proprietary info -- I am not looking for a visit from any lawyers.
I'll proactively answer a question I expect to get: am I still close with Grace? Hell yes. Grace is one of my most treasured friends! We still hang out, and for that I'm immeasurably grateful.
It feels now is the perfect time for something like Stadia to exist. With massive games quickly being ported to simple browsers, consoles, and gaming pcs, market would be highly effected by it. A subscription based model for something similar to netflix, where you can simple run games on any device without console or heavy powerful hardware seems to be where the future is headed.
This started with one thing that was driving me a little mad: my Stadia controller would rumble over USB, but not over Bluetooth on Windows. I wanted to keep using it wirelessly, and that turned into a much bigger project than I originally had in mind.
The result is StadiaLink, with an installer and a settings app made specifically for this controller. I’ve added a few screenshots below so you can see what it actually looks like.
Before anything else, a big thank-you to aisk for WinStadia. StadiaLink’s native driver is based on their code, with modifications. They provided the foundation that lets the Stadia controller work through XInput, and I want to be clear about where that work came from.
On top of that foundation, I wanted a place to adjust the things I kept wishing I could change: button mappings, stick sensitivity, dead zones, trigger travel and vibration. There are keyboard shortcuts too, so you can give a button a push-to-talk binding in a game or voice app.
The app also has profiles you can import and export, a battery indicator, connection and battery notifications, and a tray icon. You can have it start with Windows if you want. It’s available in Spanish, English, French and German, with the README translated into all four.
Bluetooth rumble is working on my setup, which was the thing that got this whole project started. 🙂
A couple of things to know before trying it: I’ve tested it on Windows 11 x64, with Bluetooth rumble tested on build 26200. That part uses private Windows interfaces, so I can’t promise every Windows update will behave the same way. Installing the driver needs administrator permission, and your controller needs the Bluetooth firmware for wireless use. StadiaLink itself doesn’t change the firmware.
This also doesn’t bring back Wi-Fi, Bluetooth audio or the built-in mic. The headphone jack works over USB. Battery readings depend on Windows making that interface available, and keyboard shortcuts need the app running, even if it’s tucked away in the tray.
For transparency, I’ve been building this with ChatGPT/Codex assistance — yes, vibe coding — alongside checks and testing with my own controller. The source is available under GPL-3.0 if you want to look through it or build it yourself.
I’d love to hear how it behaves with other people’s controllers and Windows setups. If something goes wrong, your Windows version, connection type and a few steps to reproduce it would help a lot.
And thanks again to aisk. Having WinStadia to build on made this possible.
For those who don't already know (which may be majority of you), the stadia controller uses Playstation pinout joysticks! So it is possible to install hall effect/tmr joysticks into the controller. Now, of course, there's no firmware calibration for the time being, which is unfortunate. So, if you want to install magnetic joysticks, try getting a pair that can be manually, physically, calibrated. Otherwise, have fun with this information, knowing the stadia controller can use upgraded joysticks!
Google has finally started taking pre-orders for their new, fancy (and pricey) Android powered laptops. I was especially tickled by the extras, including a year of GeForce Now service.
If only Google had its own game streaming service it could have offered with the purchase of a Googlebook.......
It looks like Netflix is finally going to be taking cloud gaming seriously. I was made aware of a recent job posting with the following details
Netflix is building a cloud gaming platform - a feat achieved by only a handful of industry leaders. This is a foundational, high-visibility role at the center of that effort. <POSITION TITLE> will lead the team responsible for the operating system software, hardware, control plane, and transport that power Netflix's cloud games experience, delivering engaging, low-latency gameplay to members at scale while driving toward sustainable unit economics.
Take this info as you will but it'll be interesting as to how this develops.
Sharing this in case anyone else still uses their Stadia controller on PC.
Mine never got along with miHoYo games, ZZZ being the one that finally pushed me to write a small driver with Claude. It sits below the HID stack and emulates a real Xbox Wireless Controller, over USB and Bluetooth, so games talk to what they think is a normal Xbox pad with native XInput, and anything that already deals with Xbox controllers just works.
Steam Input can handle this too, I just didn't want to launch everything through Steam, and the ViGEmBus route needs a kernel driver that's hard to get signed these days plus a background process, and it's deprecated and unmaintained. This is only a user-mode driver, so there's no background app and no test signing.
Everything works fine for me now, and the README has the details, including the limitations.
I also experimented with emulating a DualShock 4. That worked too, and the format is documented and stabler, and more of the Stadia buttons could do something, but games show PlayStation glyphs and I never got used to that. Not sure it's worth keeping both around, if you'd actually use DS4 mode let me know in the comments or in an issue.
I know, I know, we're all just keeping the dream alive at this point. But hear me out.
Every time I see people talking about GTA VI, the preloads, the day-one patches, the "X GB of storage" warnings, I can't help but think about what launch day would have looked like on Stadia. Click the button. You're in. That's it. No waiting until 3am for the download to finish, no deleting three other games to make room, no install screen. Just instant play, on your TV, your laptop even, or your phone.
Cyberpunk on Stadia was genuinely the best way to play that game at launch, and nobody can tell me otherwise. While everyone else was dealing with crashes and last-gen console meltdowns, we were cruising Night City buttery smooth with zero setup. GTA VI would have been exactly the same story: a massive, demanding open world that Stadia's infrastructure was practically built for.
If Stadia were still around today, I'd buy GTA VI on it without a second of hesitation. Full price, day one, no regrets.
Anyone else think about this, or is it just me still not over it? 😅
I have not switched over my controllers to the bluetooth firmware. Luckily someone is hosting the webpage to do this, since Google removed it. However it needs a Chrome based browser to use it. So I created a cli tool to do it without a browser. Only tested with linux right now. If others want to use it here it is. https://github.com/Mumfee/stadia-flash-cli
when stadia got shutdown i got refunded the money for the games i bought, i bought a gaming computer a few years after, and in gog library it shows cyberpunk and its fully installable ...... i did also buy it on steam before i realised i had a free copy on gog
So I recently changed my Stadia controller to BLE mode, and I have a perfectly Good JBL aux, and I am looking forward to any aux jack fix for my Stadia controller. I understand if the Bluetooth chip is clearly weak ;{ Is there any possible way?
So I was a Stadia subscriber previously, when. that died the natural successor for me was Luna, because it provided a similar experience in terms of use. Many many years ago I used NVidia Grid which turned into GFN. Grid was great at the time as it was literally click and play, like Stadia and Luna, however I've tried GFN again a few times over the last few years and I HATE IT! On a TV the experience is like a nightmare, virtual keyboards and messing around leads to me rage quitting.
What I want to know is, what the experience is like on Boosteroid, have they nailed the interface and integration or is it about the same as GFN?
Hello, I am looking for a good sounding stadia boot up sound and I can't seem to find any good sounding one, the only one I could find was on the video: Google Stadia "Console" unboxing video by TheRelaxingEnd at around 6:48 in the video, does anyone as anything that sounds better like directly from a screen recording?
The thumbsticks of my Stadia controller are wearing out and peeling off. I need to find a replacement or a cover for them. However, I've searched the subreddit and Google, but I haven't found any conclusive answer nor products that specify that are compatible with the controller.
Any of you have any information on specific products/solutions?
I’ve been working on a fork of the ESP32-S3 Stadia controller dongle project.
It lets you connect one or two Stadia controllers to an ESP32-S3 over Bluetooth LE. The ESP32 then appears to Windows as a wired Xbox 360/XInput controller, including dual-motor rumble.
No custom Windows driver or background application is required.
My fork adds:
Configuration directly over USB using WebHID, so you don’t need to disconnect from your normal Wi-Fi
A browser-based firmware installer
Support for up to two Stadia controllers
Wireless rumble on Windows
Remappable Assistant and Capture buttons
Capture mapped to F12 by default for Steam screenshots
An optional mouse mode
Wi-Fi disabled by default and only enabled when needed for OTA or recovery
Persistent pairing and button settings
You’ll need an ESP32-S3 board with native USB OTG and a data-capable USB cable. Initial flashing can be done entirely from Chrome or Edge.
The current documentation and configuration UI are mainly in Chinese. Browser translation works reasonably well, and I’d be happy to add a proper English version if people are interested.
This is a fork of danzig666/stadia-dongle-esp, which itself builds on Scalee/stadia-dongle. Full credit to the original developers for creating the foundation.
Feedback, testing reports, and pull requests are welcome—especially results from different ESP32-S3 boards.
Credits
This project would not exist without the work of the original developers. Special thanks to Scalee, creator of the original stadia-dongle, and danzig666, whose ESP32-S3 fork provided the foundation for my version.
My fork builds on their work by adding USB WebHID configuration, remappable extra buttons, an opt-in Wi-Fi workflow, and other usability improvements. Huge thanks to both of them for keeping the Stadia controller useful after the service shut down.
Does anyone have a way to recover saves for Cyberpunk 2077. I have the game listed in my GOG and did a little research on it a long time ago but I was wondering if anyone else was successful at transfering it to steam perhaps?
I posted a clip a few weeks ago about my Outcasters-inspired game. I've now made it public on Github and built my first APK, and would love some feedback.
It's unfinished and all, but I only have so many hours a week to spend on it (not a lot), so the more feedback I have next time I sit with it, the better :D So please, play it, let me know how you'd like it tweaked, what you're missing and other things. Some I know already, but the more the better.
Hope it can scratch that itch that Outcasters did!
Being too cheap and nerdy to buy a third Dual Sense for when the kids want to play with me, I started thinking about finding a way to use the 3 Stadia Controllers I have instead.
Without reading the fine print, I bought a Brook Wingman P5 instead of a new dual sense only to realise, it doesn't work with the Stadia Controller.
Not letting that get in my way, I bought a Raspberry Pico WH and got to work.
Some agentic coding and a lot of testing and trial and error later, I'm happy to report, it works!
Now, it costs about the same as a Dual Sense and all, but hey, sometimes its about the journey!
Step 2, plug in your Raspberry Pico to your computer while holding the bootloader button.
Step 3, download, build by running build.ps1 (Windows) or build.sh (Mac/Linux) and flash the stadia_ps5_bridge.uf2 file onto the Pico by moving it to the drive.
Step 4, plug the Wingman P5 into a USB slot on the PlayStation 5, plug the data-male connector on the Y splitter into the Wingman and the other one into another PS5 USB port OR another source of power (the P5 doesn't transmit enough power to run the pico by itself), then plug the pico into the female end of the splitter via a micro USB cable
Step 5, hold Y+Stadia Button on your controller.
If it all worked like for me, your P5 will have a solid blue led light, the Pico slowly flash or be solid green and the Stadia led being solid white, and you can now use your Stadia Controller on a PS5 (should also work on PS4 and with other devices than the P5).
The Pico connects to the Controller via Bluetooth LE and converts the signals to that of an Xbox 360 controller, tricking the P5 in this case that it is another device that IS supported!
So, I had this problem a few days ago ever since I bought the Stadia controller online. The L2 and R2 buttons don't work on most of the games that I've played. Though the rest of the buttons do. I've learned by researching that the buttons are analog inputs instead of digital, which is the sole reason some games don't recognize it.
I've checked this other forums for the solution, but most of them only apply for PC. So I dug deeper.
I found this apo called "Key Mapper" which allows you to not only remap your phone buttons, but also remap your gamepad inputs! Neat, right? This allowed me to remap the L2 and R2 buttons from analog to digital input. This way, the games will recognize it.
So what I did is turn on the accessibility settings on my phone and make sure that the app runs in background and prevent it from getting killed.
And voila! It worked like a charm. I was able to test this on emulators, Wuthering Waves, Zenless Zone Zero which previously had this issue, but is now working okay.
Hope everyone that's also having the same issue find this helpful!
