[andrewia]

I assume it requires something hosted, and can't be open sourced due to licensing restrictions*. Hopefully it can be reverse engineered.

*I've heard from firmware engineers inside and outside of Google that licensing is the biggest reason why stuff isn't open sourced.

[AstixAndBelix]

I mean, that's absolutely true for Android hardware. If MediaTek or Qualcomm or any other supplier for the various parts open sourced their drivers we would be able to port any new version of AOSP to basically everything that has enough juice to run it and then some.

Unfortunately these companies control the drivers and have the strictest licenses imaginable, so even companies like Samsung or Google can only offer updates as long as their suppliers allow them, after that it's just waiting for the ABI to break and the old drivers to stop working

[sangnoir]

I am beyond grateful for Bluetooth functionality on a free controller, but the greedy part of me was half-hoping Google would unlock the device and open source the gamepad-over-ip code. My wish is selfish: I wasn't play Steam games that are on a gaming PC in a different room to my TV, the PC is well outside of bluetooth range, but both areas have WiFi coverage. I acknowledge that this is a first-world problem, but regardless, I hope someone will be able to reverse-engineer the firmware and come up with an open-version.