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Comment by TillE | Hacker News Reader

> You can still plug the Stadia controller into the USB port on your Smart TV, computer, or gaming console and use it as a controller through a standard HID (Human Interface Device) connection

OK so it's not garbage, it's a perfectly usable USB HID controller. Would be nice if they fixed the wireless functionality, but just buy a long USB cable and use it. Wireless is a really minor convenience for a traditional gamepad that you're not waving around.

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Yep, that's exactly what I do with mine. I only used Stadia to play Cyberpunk 2077, the rest of the time I used it with USB for Steam games. I think this oversimplifies the work needed to use it over Bluetooth, the wireless capability was actually the controller using WiFi to talk to Stadia directly, and then some fancy predictive input algorithms to help deal with latency. It only knows that custom WiFi HID and regular USB HID to speak controller events.

So it's not just a matter of turning it on, you're essentially rewriting a huge piece of the firmware to make that happen. This is an excellent case for open sourcing the firmware code though, even if that doesn't happen someone will probably reverse engineer it.

There is still validity to the article. All of that Bluetooth chippery, licensing, development wasn’t free. And to have that functionality be totally bricked, seems like e-waste to me.

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