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Google Stadia Controller won't support Bluetooth audio at launch, TV play with Chromecast limited to Stadia Controllers

Google has detailed some of the features Stadia will be missing at launch, as well as a few other limitations.

In the same Reddit AMA where Stadia director of product Andrey Doronichev said he'd prefer if people saw Stadia Pro as a service similar to Xbox Live Gold or PS Plus rather than Netflix, the veteran Google employee also responded to a few different user questions.

One of the most popular has been about controller support for Stadia. Google always maintained that the platform is controller-agnostic, but Doronichev shared a few more details.

First, he confirmed that Stadia supports any HID compliant controller, which basically covers the vast majority of controllers, including Xbox One, PS4 (DualShock 4) and even the Xbox Adaptive Controller. The only catch is that you'll only be able to use these controllers when playing Stadia through a Chrome browser.

Which means, if you intend to play Stadia on TV through Chromecast Ultra, you're out of luck; Doronichev clarified that a Stadia Controller is required if you want to go through the TV directly.

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This isn't completely surprising, especially since you can connect your laptop or PC to a TV using an HDMI cable, but it's nonetheless going to be inconvenient for some.

To that end, both the Stadia Controller and device you're playing on will need to be on the same WiFi network.

In the same AMA, Doronichev also confirmed that the Stadia Controller won't support Bluetooth audio at launch. You'll be limited to the built-in headphone jack for audio in November. There's a bit of a workaround to this, however.

Since Stadia can be accessed on any PC capable of running a Chrome browser, not to mention Pixel phones, you can pair your Bluetooth headset to your laptop/phone and get audio that way. Through Chromecast Ultra, however, you'll need to pick between TV speakers or controller audio.

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