Stadia’s Wireless Controller Will Need to Be Plugged in While Playing on Computers or Phones

It'll only be wireless when playing on Chromecast Ultra.

Google’s streaming service, Stadia, launches in just little over a month (in some parts of the world, at any rate). New information is, as such, popping up readily, and this latest detail might leave some of you disappointed. As first pointed out by 9to5Google, in a new video explaining what Stadia is and how it works (which you can view below), Google added a disclaimer in fine print that the Stadia Pro controller won’t exactly be as wireless as you’d think.

What exactly does that mean? Well, if you’re playing Stadia on Chromecast Ultra, the controller will work wirelessly, as intended. If, however, you’re using the service on your computer, your laptop, or any of your mobile devices (essentially, on anything but the Chromecast Ultra), you’ll have plug in a USB-C cable to use your controller. This is something Google confirms to The Verge, while Google community manager also says the same on Reddit.

Stadia is launching on November 19, so there’s not long left before we find out how well the service lives up to all of Google’s lofty promises. From massive multiplayer gameplay to super-responsive games, there’s a lot that Google deems will be possible with Stadia, so it should be interesting to see how the service kicks off.

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