PSA: Don’t forget to switch your Stadia controller to Bluetooth mode before Dec. 31

Remember Stadia? I still do with a tinge of sadness each time it comes up. Sure, it’s tough to build a new platform, create a successful game studio, and simultaneously upend an entire industry, but I think Google should have stuck with it far longer than they did. Stadia was an awesome services from a technical standpoint, and even though it was eventually shuttered, I can’t help but wonder what would have come of it under better management.

Regardless, what’s done is done, and Stadia lives on only in our collective memories at this point. And apart from those, the only thing left is the expertly-crafted controllers Google managed to roll out right from the beginning with Stadia. Ah, those controllers. They may be among my all-time favorite game controllers ever built, making the end of Stadia sting that much more.

Alas, Google did at least give us a way to continue enjoying those controllers moving forward when they announced a web-based tool that could convert your leftover Stadia controllers to a Bluetooth-only mode in just a few minutes. It works great and has made the only real hardware borne by the Stadia project not have to be destined for the landfill.

There’s an expiration date, though

But if you’ve been putting off this transition, you actually don’t have long to take advantage of it. As was initially the case, the tool for converting your Stadia controller will go away after December 31, 2023. When this was all beginning in January, having an entire year sounded like a long, long time to get this task done. Now, here we are just a few weeks from the end of 2023 and Google is clearly stating on the Stadia site that this tool will cease to exist on New Year’s Eve.

So, if you haven’t already, you need to head to the Stadia site and get your controllers converted. They are too good to be wasted, and you can still use them for other games and streaming services like GeForce NOW. If you enjoy playing with a controller versus mouse and keyboard, the Stadia controller is something you are going to want to keep around for later use. Don’t miss out simply becuase you failed to take action.