Remember how you always wished you could use your Stadia controller with your Nintendo Switch? Well, now you can! Kind of. Or you might be asking, what’s Stadia? No one would fault you for forgetting. Google’s now-defunct but once very promising cloud gaming service has gone the way of the dodo. In other words, it’s dead. And it’s been dead since early 2023 when Google officially pulled it offline. It had a good run in its nearly three years of operation. But Google did what Google always does. It trims the fat by cutting services that aren’t raking in profits hand over fist. Which Stadia was most certainly not doing.
Not all of Stadia is gone though. You can still use the Stadia controller for playing games. Just, not on Stadia anymore. Around the time of the service shutdown, Google put out an official method for updating your Stadia controller to be used as a standard Bluetooth controller for platforms that support Bluetooth controllers. Google was initially going to shut down this activation process in December of last year but things have been extended to December of 2024. There is one other way you can use a Stadia controller to play games. With this controller from a company PXN.
This Nintendo Switch Pro controller is a Stadia controller with extra features
Spotted by 9to5Google, a post on the Stadia subreddit includes a link to a controller on Amazon that looks suspiciously like a Stadia controller. And that’s because it mostly is. It’s not entirely the same. For instance, the left joystick is offset like it is on official Switch Pro controllers, and the ABXY buttons are ordered in the same way they are on Switch. The joysticks also aren’t using the same joystick caps and some of the buttons in the middle are a different shape. There’s also a different font for the ABXY button letters.
Those differences aside, just about everything else looks the same. The controller is the same shape. The shoulder buttons are the same shape. Even the d-pad. PXN does seem to have augmented the controller with two back macro buttons. Which makes sense, given this is a pro controller. It also features a turbo function and adjustable vibration. It’s not a complete 1:1 with the Stadia controller and is more of a knock-off. However, with the controller shell being the same exact shape by the looks of it, it seems PXN may have picked up the molds for the Stadia controller to make their own controller for Nintendo Switch.
At least, that’s the running theory. If that’s the case, that’s not a bad thing. The Stadia controller was incredibly comfortable to play games with. So we imagine this one is too. You can also use it to play games on PC via Steam, Android, and iOS. If you’re in need of a new controller for your Switch, you probably can’t go wrong with this one. As a bonus, it’s only $22.99 so it’s affordable as well.
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