Google’s gamepad is an experiment in industrial design, but can it topple the DualShock 4 and Xbox One controller?
At Google’s opening keynote at this year’s Game Developers Conference, CEO Sundar Pichai unveiled the future of game-streaming: Stadia.
The correct plural pronunciation of the word ‘stadium’, Stadia will offer gamers an arena to watch and participate, game and stream their games to the wider world. It’s ambitious and, despite some huge unknown factors like cost, game library and recommended specs, potentially game-changing.
Part and parcel of Stadia is the new Stadia Controller – a Wi-Fi-enabled gamepad created by Google’s hardware team that will help you get the most from the streaming service when it launches later this year.
Now, you don’t need the controller to use the streaming service: Stadia can be played with any controller you already own, including your keyboard and mouse if you’re playing on a laptop and PC. But this first-party controller unlocks the next-level functions Google is building into its streaming service, like Google Assistant, that offers in-game help on-demand and its share button that will trigger Google to start a second stream of your game live on YouTube Gaming.
Inside the halls at the Game Developers Conference we got the chance to check out the controller for ourselves and while we weren’t allowed to put it to the test for ourselves, we could get up close and personal with the bridge between you and Google’s hyper-powered streaming service.
Whatever it says to the contrary, Google is a relative newcomer to the AAA gaming space. Sure, it single-handedly created the gaming-enabled Android TV, the operating system of both microconsoles like the Nvidia Shield and stellar Sony TVs like the Sony X900F, but it’s not the first name that comes to mind when you think of mainstream gaming manufacturers like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.
That said, it’s no wonder Google has sought inspiration from ‘the Big Three’ in terms of its controller the design – the Stadia Controller is exactly what you’d get if you mashed the Xbox One gamepad with Sony’s DualShock 4.
