Google Stadia bosses have warned that the upcoming games platform won’t be ready to support Bluetooth headphones or gaming headsets when controllers start shipping in November.
The news emerged yesterday via a Reddit AMA session with Google Stadia director of product, Andrey Doronichev. Doronichev explained that “the Stadia Controller comes with a headphone jack for wired audio, but won’t support Bluetooth audio at launch in November”.
This means that if you want to play your games in public you’ll probably want to dig up a pair of wired headphones if you don’t feel like being on the other end of a handful of glares.
However, there’s no need to go on the hunt for a pair of Bluetooth-free headphones just yet. There is a way around this minor setback if you have a Pixel phone or plan to stream your games via the Google Chrome browser on your PC.
Doronichev continued: “If you’re playing on the computer or a Pixel phone you can connect the BT headset to it directly and use it in Stadia.”
This means that you can pair your Bluetooth headset with your Pixel or PC and hear the audio while circumventing the Stadia controller entirely.
If you don’t have a Pixel and don’t want to play your games via Chrome then it may seem as though you’re out of luck. The could be over pretty soon though.
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The Stadia controller does come with Bluetooth 4.2 built-in but the feature is disabled. The Google Store states that “no Bluetooth Classic functionality is enabled at this time” but that the functionality “may be implemented at a later date”.
If this little bump in the road hasn’t totally put you off the streaming platform, you can pre-order Google Stadia Founder’s Edition for £119 on the Google Store now.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
