After 3 short years of operation, Google killed its Stadia game streaming service back in January 2023. With the hardware being rendered useless, the company allowed Stadia owners to update their controller's firmware to enable Bluetooth support for use with other platforms. At the time, the deadline to make the switch was announced to be the end of 2023 - though this has now been extended for the second time.

With 2024 coming to an end, Google has updated the support page for its Stadia controller with the following: "You can switch to Bluetooth mode, check the controller mode and check for Bluetooth updates until 31 Dec 2025."

For context, back when Stadia was shut down, Google confirmed that they would be offering this Bluetooth conversion tool up until the 31st of December 2023. As the deadline approached, this was pushed back to the end of 2024.

Once again, this arbitrary deadline has been further delayed by another year - begging the question as to why there is a time limit to convert the controller's firmware in the first place.

Regardless, though it is far from the best to exist, Stadia owners at the time generally agreed that the peripheral itself was comfortable to use; and so having a spare controller is always handy - even one made by Google.