Xbox is Getting Keyboard and Mouse Support



Xbox Startup

Microsoft revealed quite a bit of information about the Xbox One X and other general Xbox news during PAX West, and in a response during one of their panels, it was confirmed that keyboard and mouse support are on their way for the consoles.

During a PAX panel where a member of the audience pitched questions to the speakers, Microsoft’s Mike Ybarra answered one inquiry related to when Xbox would be receiving keyboard and mouse support. Ybarra responded to the question by saying that support for the external devices is still in the works, but the company is approaching the feature carefully while considering developers and others involved in the gaming process.


“Keyboard and mouse support is definitely coming,” Ybarra said during the panel. “We have to be very smart in how we do that. We'll leave it a lot up to developer choice. A lot of people tweet me and say ‘you can't do this because of fairness,’ and we understand that. We run two platforms; the Xbox platform, and the Windows platform.”

Ybarra added to that statement by saying that they’d look to “coach developers” and help them make decisions with keyboard and mouse support on a game-by-game basis. The Microsoft speaker gave the example of competitive games specifically by saying that players would likely appreciate the chance to have a choice between using a controller or the new option, a decision that they hope to keep in players’ hands.


“So, you'll see our first games supporting keyboard and mouse soon, I can't announce what that is, but soon. And based on developer interest, they'll choose to do keyboard and mouse, or not!"

Of course, for gamers who have experience using both a mouse and a controller, they can probably speak to the differences between the two options. Using a mouse allows for a level of precision and aiming that tops the gameplay value of using a controller, but plenty of players will likely stick to the comfortability of the Xbox controller regardless.


It’ll likely take some time before mouse and keyboard support is fully ready for Xbox, but for now, it’s definitely on the way.