Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones directly supports the Google Stadia Controller

While Google Stadia may have shut down, its memory lives on through the official controller and the platform’s avid community. Ubisoft has even seen fit to visually support the Google Stadia Controller in its hotly anticipated high-seas adventure Skull and Bones.

Shortly before Google shut down the Stadia servers, the company launched a way to convert the official Stadia Controller into a Bluetooth-ready device. The move helped turn what could otherwise have been e-waste/relics into excellent accessories to use for years to come. The conversion program was only supposed to be available for a limited time, but Google extended the deadline by an additional year.

Considering how many Stadia Controllers are out there in the wild – Google gave away many Stadia hardware bundles over the years, often ending up being resold – it makes some sense for game developers to support the controller. As spotted by Ray3473 on Twitter/X, Ubisoft has elected to do just that with an official Stadia Controller visual overlay in Skull and Bones.

The “Gamepad Visual Override” option allows players to choose the appearance of the in-game button prompts to match their preferred controller. This is especially useful for the Stadia Controller, which features two distinct menu buttons (in the Start/Select positions) that don’t have particularly obvious names but are easy to identify visually.

Ubisoft’s inclusion of Google’s controller in 2024 – over a year after the platform met its end – is undoubtedly a result of the game’s original plan to release in 2022 with Stadia as one of its intended platforms, as spotted through an ESRB listing.

Notably, Ubisoft’s documentation does not indicate the Google Stadia Controller as one of the “supported peripherals for Skull and Bones.” Despite that, most games that support typical game controllers should work just fine with the Stadia Controller, with or without a special visual overlay.

Either way, this is just a reminder of the alternate timeline where Google Stadia succeeded enough to compete in the growing market of cloud gamers.

More on cloud gaming:

• Xbox confirms over 10% of in-game hours come from Cloud Gaming
• GeForce Now for Android update brings 1440p at 120fps
• The Stadia Controller has been reborn as a Nintendo Switch controller