Google announced yesterday that it will shut down Stadia in January. The good news is that refunds will be given to everyone who bought all Stadia hardware, including its controller, so long as they bought it from the Google Store. You don’t have to return the controller to get the refund (see the platform’s FAQ page), but it doesn’t have to go to waste just because Stadia is shutting down.
Users in the Stadia subreddit have been asking Google to make the firmware for the Stadia controller open source so that it would work on PC and consoles even after its namesake platform has been put out to pasture (per Eurogamer). Though Google won’t be able to do that in an official capacity anytime soon, software engineer Parth Shah created a workaround tool that allows players to use the controller wirelessly over Wi-Fi.
The first thing you need to do is download Python 3 if you don’t have it already, then download version 1.2.0 from the releases page on GitHub. To run the server, just download the preinstalled zip file and run server.exe. Right-click on the icon in the System Tray and you’ll see the website you need to access — in this case, Gamepad Tester. Open Gamepad Tester on your phone, plug in the Stadia controller, and remap the buttons to mimic the controller of your favorite console, such as Xbox Series X/S or PS5.
If set up correctly, the trick will allow you to connect your controller to a device over Wi-Fi. You’ll need to be plugged into a phone to do so, so it’s not fully wireless, but it’s a workaround for anyone who doesn’t want to run a wire all the way to a device on an entertainment center. The workaround won’t be affected by Stadia’s shutdown as it doesn’t connect to Google’s servers to function. At the moment, the trick only works on Windows devices.
You can check out the demo video Shah posted in July to get a better idea of how to set up the workaround.
While we don’t know if and when Google will officially provide the source code for the Stadia controller’s use outside of its own platform, Shah’s fix should suffice for now. Either way, it’s better than leaving the controller in a landfill or biting the dust.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.