xbox_one_keyboard_and_mouse

Gaming & Culture / Gaming & Entertainment. Company's efforts to link PC and console gaming get even more explicit. by Kyle Orland - Jun 15, 2016 4:48 pm UTC. PC gamers may not be able to lord their preferred control scheme over their console brethren for much longer. Microsoft is promising that Xbox One developers will be able to easily integrate mouse and keyboard controls for their console games in a matter of months. "Truthfully in our dev kit modes now keyboard works, mouse support is a little bit further away," Microsoft's Phil Spencer said in an interview with PCGamesN. "I say it because I know it’s not years away, it’s more like months away, but we don’t have an exact date yet." Based on the quote, it's hard to say if that means full keyboard-and-mouse Xbox One games are just months away from market or if that's just when developers will be able to start work on adding such support for future games. Either way, it's a clear sign that Microsoft is speeding along in bridging gaming's decades-long PC-vs-console control scheme gap. Spencer also tied the new control options in with Microsoft's recently announced Play Anywhere initiative, which lets users buy certain games once and play them on either the Xbox One or a Windows 10 PC. "When we enable PC and mouse on console, it’ll be interesting to see how many of those creators think about running their PC and mouse-only game on console, and then this idea of Play Anywhere might get even more interesting for those guys," Spencer said. The Xbox One actually launched with limited keyboard support in some of its apps—we exploited that feature to test the box's potential as a work machine years ago. But this sounds like a much more robust plan to fully integrate a mouse and keyboard option into the core of the system's gaming functions (potentially for UWP apps as well). The new control options could be important for Microsoft's recent focus on cross-platform play between PCs and the Xbox One. Developers we speak to say many types of competitive games (such as first-person shooters) would be massively unbalanced if console players with controllers went up against PC players with mice. Offering the full keyboard and mouse controls to the console players could be one way to fix this potential imbalance. Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. You May Also Like. WIRED Media Group. © 2018 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Microsoft will add keyboard, mouse support to Xbox One for gaming. Microsoft has been working to improve the Xbox One’s value proposition through offering features like backwards compatibility and the ability to stream games from the Xbox One to Windows 10 devices. Now the company is planning to add PC keyboard and mouse support to the Xbox One. With these features, one of the last significant differentiations between the Xbox One and a standard PC will vanish. As bit-tech.net details, Phil Spencer responded to a question about whether or not users would be able to stream from a Windows machine to an Xbox One with the following: To be clear, you can already use a USB mouse and keyboard with an Xbox One, but not for gaming. Windows 10 streaming, for now, is also a one-way affair. If Microsoft brings this feature to Xbox One, it opens the door to a great many options, including the ability to play online against PC users without worrying that PC gamers will have an intrinsic advantage thanks to superior controls and pixel-perfect mousing. While I realize there are gamers who don’t like playing with a mouse and keyboard, there’s no contest as to which method of input offers greater precision. Unlike controllers, a mouse is capable of pinpoint accuracy, while keyboards offer a much greater range of commands and inputs. More generally, the addition of Windows streaming to an Xbox One could allow for smooth play across a home network without dragging a PC out to the living room. It could be used to easily blow up a spreadsheet or Word document from a smaller Windows 10 device or laptop. Heck, with keyboard and mouse support, Microsoft could actually release certain applications for the platform. Don’t mistake me — I don’t think anyone is going to buy an Xbox One just to load Office on it — but an Xbox One that can run Office in addition to having a web browser and gaming capabilities could actually replace a desktop PC in many people’s homes. Even if its primarily an entertainment device, the option to load applications or data could still come in handy. How’s backwards compatibility coming along? Microsoft’s backwards compatibility announcement was one of the big events at E3 this year and the company wasn’t always certain it could be done. In an interview with Xbox Wire, Mike Ybarra, Xbox director of program management, said, “We knew it would be an enormous engineering challenge, and many people told us it would be impossible,” Ybarra said in an interview with Xbox Wire. “However, the team had conviction, and delivered. This is what I love most about Xbox: We’re all gamers, and fan feedback fuels our passion.” To be fair, however, early reports on the state of compatibility indicated the company has a long, long way to go. According to Eurogamer’s tests, the Mass Effect conversion the Xbox One forces V-Sync on in all cases, where the Xbox 360 didn’t. This eliminates screen tearing, but it introduces a new problem — by forcing V-Sync on in all cases, the game runs as much as 30% slower on the newer console. According to their testing, the frame rate can dip as low as 10 FPS in spots. They observed similar problems in Perfect Dark Zero, though in that case, the average frame rate was still better overall. Undoubtedly Ybarra and his team will continue working on the problem, but unless there’s a way to clean things up in the game code itself, it may never run well. Backwards compatibility is the kind of feature that sounds amazing but the devil’s in the details. Right now, Microsoft still has a lot of details to work out. Post a Comment Comment. “the game runs as much as 30% slower on the newer console. According to their testing, the frame rate can dip as low as 10 FPS in spots.” That is far more than just 30% slower indeed… and it is not due to V-Sync for sure.. it is just the fact that the AMD APU Jaguar can’t really do proper real-time XBox360 emulation. It just can’t. Now either Microsoft is going to re-compile all games for x86/x64 and lower quality too in order to make those games run or they just won’t work. If they keep telling that they managed to create a fully working XBox360 emulator that would be able to run all games 100% real-time then they would just be telling lies about something that can’t be done. They can’t achieve that at all because the AMD APU Jaguar doesn’t have the needed raw computing power to do that. It is just too slow. it does if they utalise it properly.. the problem comes down to more cores while the older games were stronger core focused.. the 360 only had 3 cores lol.. plus emulation.. it is more then possible just a pain in the ass. 3-Cores with 2-way SMT. The 360 CPU is about as powerful as the Jaguar CPU powering the XB1. Both have a max throughput in the 105 GFLOP range. So you basically have a performance cost equal to the cost of doing a POWER to X86 conversion, and since POWER have a much deeper set of registers then X86 does, you are going to lose a lot in the translation. That doesn’t seem quite right…the Intel i7 4790k is only about 107 Gflops and that should be leagues ahead of what’s being used in XBO, is there something I’m missing here? 3 cores with HT. The 360 is capable of 6 thread at 3.2 GHz. Jaguar is 8 weak cores at 1.75 Ghz. It is not as powerful as the jagguar unless they seriously cut back costs on the cpu. regardless the new console is powerful enough because it doesn’t all have to ride on the cpu, and again it comes down to optimization.. something many other emulators dont get because of their size.. Frankly I think it’s amazing the APU can emulate a *much* higher-clocked multi-core processor of different architecture to begin with. I still can hardly believe it and am thoroughly impressed it actually works at all. If they recompiled games to suit Jaguar why would they need to lower quality? The Xbox One APU outperforms the old 360 on general purpose processing and graphics by a fair margin. They’re not going to recompile them, though. There are many reasons why they can’t/won’t. It would be up to the publishers to sort that out and essentially re-release the games, if that were going to happen, and you can bet they’d want more money for it. He mean it droped 30% overall, but in certain places it decreased to 10 frame/sec. I’m nowhere near as knowledgeable as you guys seem to be, but aren’t we overlooking the potential for offsetting some of the work to servers with Microsoft’s ‘harness the cloud’ technology? You are asking the wrong person, he doesn’t have a clue. As for your question…not for real time rendering…. you can’t offload huge data sets to the cloud for processing and the latency hit would be enormous. You can offload functions that affect multiplayer game play, that is essentially required anyway, but not everything. Now if you were talking about rendering jobs that aren’t displayed in real time that is a different thing. Ever heard of the folding@home project? That is probably the most widely known, and significant, distributed processing project so far. It wasn’t so much cloud but from the perspective of job offloading it is essentially the same. Thanks for clearing that up for me. As I said, this stuff is way over my head, I’m merely an interested gamer. From what I can see their all arguing that Microsoft can’t emulate the 360. I’m sure they wouldn’t say it and not be able to back it up. Thanks for your enlightened and oh so technically precise post Chojin999. If you can’t detect my sarcasm it’s probably because you are knowledgeable about sarcasm as you are hardware and software engineering. But then again ignorance is bliss. I think in hindsight people would have waited 2 more years if it meant AMD would be able to deliver HBM APUs with 16nm FinFET Zen cores, and updated graphics designs actually fully compatible with DX12 (Xbox at least, anyway…) At least then it would presumably handle 1080p at 60fps flawlessly, and it’d also have that extra power for emulation. That would have been in line with sony’s original plan on ps4, msft rushed and tossed out a bluff, meaning sony had no choice but to respond with the development they had since 2008. This of course got msft, their bluff having been called… it is a shame they tried rushing it and underestimated sony and the consumer. I have played through Mass Effect on the Xbox One all the way to the end. Except for it crashing the first time I loaded it I never noticed any problems with the game. I have compared it to the copy on my 360 and I have noticed that the graphics seem smoother on the Xbox One, probably due to the VSync enabled as the article says. It also loaded faster between screens, probably due to the faster disk subsystem on the One. Even if it plays slower in some parts I really couldn’t tell. I consider it an excellent port and if the other 360 games play as well then Microsoft has a winner on their hands. It is an amazing achievement considering the different processor architectures. I just wish they had included the DLC during the test phase. Yep, people can speculate and scoff at the XBox One specs all day long but as long as the games actually play the same(or close) as they did on the original hardware when Microsoft is done doing their magic, that’s all that really matters. I haven’t tried it myself but from everything I’ve seen/heard, the performance isn’t that bad. Lol? What pr crap is this? It is nearly unplayable in preview, but perfect in pc emulators… Lol, haha, you got me.. haha, nice troll! What are you talking about? I have been playing Mass Effect with BC for a couple months now and just beat the game again. It ran pretty flawlessly. There were a couple fps drops but that’s it. If by flawless you mean incredibly flawed and broken still, then yeah… flawless. Their bc emulation still has far to go, atm better to simply use old hardware or pc. Nope, I didn’t mean that at all… Literally the exact same performance.. It’s going to be just a console, loaded with more junk then you need, and that makes it just junk. 30% slower, that’s it? seems like more if you ask me. And dude just get a cheap xbox live gold code. There are plenty of places that give huge discounts on xbox live gold codes. for example it took me all of 4 seconds to find this place giveawayman.com one and done! Boom Roasted! Discounted xbl gold < not having to pay for any of that bullshit. you do know that would appear to be a bot/chinese or russian scammer right? it would appear they lifted a bit from the article and then went into something about cheap xbox live gold codes with a very dubious link. As cool as it is that really won’t be necessary Microsoft has been adding way too many cool features that they forgot to build a gaming console. Actually I’m all for this one, most especially if it leads to general app availability on Xbox One (almost certainly their intention) and more importantly, streaming of games from PC to Xbox, which I am far more interested in than streaming games from Xbox to PC. Eh? Pc can stream already… no xbox is needed.. PC can’t play xbox exclusives sadly. Only reason I even own consoles. we have so many more than exclusives we dont need them # PCMASTER RACE. Personally I’m looking forward to streaming halo/forza/destiny to my pc, and maybe even playing forza with my logitech g27 wheel. lol, pc can’t play all of the 2 xbox exclusives… yet….. when all but two of your games are on other platforms that play them better… well, what incentive is there? And especially when those few titles have and will be mediocre at best. also.. we are talking about streaming pc content to other displays… not streaming a worse version of a game while further degrading what little fidelity remains to hardware that itself could run laps around the xb1 (current streaming method for xb1) LOL, I applaud your tenacity. I didn’t realize PC had sunset overdrive, the MCC, Gears of War, Forza, and Rare Replay… ‘all of the 2 xbox exclusives’ lmao and the next year will bring several more. Sorry.. pc doesn’t have the worst and most broken bundle of halos, a terribke shooter, and another sorry car game… most of the rest actually is on pc… It’s well known, msft has a small exclusive portfolio that needs far more investment into new ip’s MSFT….. xbox has even fewer. The real issue is that they keep pushing what little they have to their sad bit of hardware when the majority of their consumers are pc based. Why is it a ‘broken bundle’? It works perfectly fine. Forza a sorry car game? lmao it’s one of the best racing games in existence. New IP’s? Such as Scalebound, Quantum Break, and Recore? I have a 1500$ PC I built to game on. It’s not like i’m just a Microsoft fanboy that hasn’t experienced anything else.. If anything you seem to be more of a fanboy by blatantly dismissing all of these games that are universally loved by nearly anyone that gives it a decent shot. Serious denial… from claiming mcc is fine onward… it isn’t. You are only fooling yourself. It had trouble for about a month.. I don’t get how I’m able to play multiplayer and campaign every day without a hiccup on such a broken game. Must be magic! Month. you realize a month is about 30 days right? Not 400+ days…. it is still broken, despite your denial we know the truth. How have I beaten all 4 campaigns with friends online and played 400 hours of online PVP then? Oh yeah, it’s not broken. Sorry, but 1 person out of all 500 playing it is hardly an indication of it working, especially when it is the only thing the other 7 million xb1 owners have to look forward to, that and minecraft… Broken game is broken, as is your delusional little dream xbot. Back to ign with you. I own both consoles and have a gaming PC.. You’re clearly delusional. Have a good day sir. You clearly don’t own any of them, let alone all. You would know.. Right? I just got a PS4 off craigslist for 250 a couple weeks ago. I have owned an Xbox One since day 1 and I have a fairly high end rig. I5 4590, gtx 970.. Nothing great but it gets the job done.. How’d you come to the conclusion I have none of them? lmao. I don’t own a Wii U though. So I guess I don’t have all. Simple, you are clueless about the features and functions of them, only a mental deficiency, or lack of actual owner experience can explain such a lack of knowledge. Next time try pulling your bs from somewhere else, your imagination is lacking. Ahh… I forgot you’re just a dumb troll. Don’t respond to my last response please. Ia your little tantrum over now? K, back to destiny, cuz halo broken. I know, I do indeed stream games on occasion this way. However, I’m not averse to having another device in the house that I can stream PC games to, hence my position on the Xbox. And I’m sure it’s useful for those who want a quick and easy way of playing PC titles on a telly (and already have an Xbox there). I guess the counter-argument is why limit it to PC-to-PC? Why not have PC-to-Xbox as well? smart tv apps and dongle less than 15 bucks does this, being that the point isn’t to stream a pc game to an xbox, but to stream it to a different display, xbox is simply the very expensive middle-man. Sure, but if you already have an Xbox under the telly (and no Smart TV), that’s 15 bucks you don’t have to spend, and except for something like another computer or Steam Machine (or Valve’s little set-top box) I’d argue the Xbox would work better for game streaming than third party Smart TV apps or dongles, particularly where passing through game input is concerned. There should be little reason to frown at making any of our devices more versatile, whether we think we as individuals need the features or can already achieve that functionality in some way. Versatility where not needed is pretty useless… I could use a tire for a swing as well as any manufactured swing… but a tire is better suited to be on a car… that is the issue, does it do what most people already have hardware to do? Sure…. but it is pretty poor at it, and worse still that it takes up more space, another power outlet, another 500 bucks and 60 a year to keep running what other do for free and better…. Honestly, it would be better for those who already have an xb1 and who only intend to use it as a streaming mediator to sell it and go another route… Until they improve streaming quality and media playback fidelity on xb1 I would not recommend it as a solution. You have no clue what he’s talking about. Keyboard and mouse are actually important for, you know, gaming. Mouse + Keyboard is essential for xbone. Allowing players to use M+KB and maybe even windows 10 will turn xbone from a half-assed gaming machine(which PS4 also is) into an actually decently-priced(compared to all the overpriced prebuilt pc out there) pc alternative. If you buy a prebuilt gaming pc then you did it wrong. You can’t build a PC that beats Xbox One for less than $200-250 which is what you can get an xbox one for. If you can… Please share your sub $200 pc build that can do 1080p 60fps… If you buy a console then you also did it wrong. No it’s not essential, you can play perfectly fine without it. Far from perfectly. Keyboard and Mouse support on a console mean nothing. Unless you game on a desk, PC-style. Usually a console is enjoyed on the couch, thus there is a real need for a proper gamepad. There is no absolute “better” method of gaming. On one hand, a K&M combo grants precision via mouse, but the character movement is horrible using the WASD (or whatever) keys (running with shift+key? gimme a break, I can do this in a gamepad by simply clicking the stick while pressing it in any direction in 360 degrees). A K&M combo is really a must in MMO games though, like WoW, where there exist many command inputs and text communication with others. A gamepad, on the other hand, is a jack of all trades, a comfortable input machine, but lacks a mouse’s precision in aiming. I personally prefer gamepads, but it’s not the same for everybody. Joypad + Mouse, FTW! GPad players have a hard time against M/K players in multiplayer FPSs. The adoption of M/K input would allow XBox users to compete on an equal footing with users of PCs; it elevates the XBox from a mere entertainment console to a serious gaming platform. Yes, but you forget that FPS games are not the only ones existing. There are 3rd person shooters (GTA, Red Dead Redemption, Resident Evil 5/6/Revelation co-op, etc.), racers, fighting games, sports. Try and play FIFA or Street Fighter with a keyboard, if you dare. Call of Duty has really poisoned the games industry to the point of thinking there are no other (multiplayer or not) games around. And last but not least, how can the Xbox One become a “serious gaming platform” in FPS games, when it can’t perform decently at 60 fps? Even Titanfall on Xbox One is a tear-fest operating at 792p and 40-50 fps. A K&M combo isn’t gonna change that. Keyboard vs gamepad is a wrong kind of mentality. If you don’t use the right kind of input for the game that you are playing, you are doing it wrong. Third person shooters are still better with M+KB. (shooting games in general is better with M+KB, because aiming is dependent on your skill and not your handicap + auto/assisted aim) Fighting games are similar with M+KB because movement generally needs to be precise. If I wanted to play FIFA I would just go outside. Real life court has much better visuals than game. You think anyone actually believe callofdoody is only game? Try playing RTS on controller. Xbone can have 60fps at 1080p if the developers just focus on gameplay instead of prettiest(yet still shit compared to PC) screenshots. many fight sticks are generally digital anyway (8 degrees of movement) and even then most fighting games only accept 8 movements anyway even with a 360 digital control method. Lol mouse aiming = skill? No…. it is better BECAUSE it takes less skill to get precision…. Yeah the computing power of the Xbox One is pathetic, I get noticeable slowdowns on tons of games. I agree COD has been bad for FPS gaming in general, dumbing down the genre to feed console peasants(more sales). There is plenty of room for both type of controllers. I cant tell where the most players are, but LOL, WOW, CS:GO/COD, has got to be some of the biggest.,and none of will be any good with a contoller. Also see how big Dayz, Squad, World of warships/world of tanks are, again, K/M. SPorts and driving gamnes and still better with controller! Unfortunately, even if an X-Box gamer started using a mouse and keyboard in FPS games, there will probably still be a decent skill difference. A lot of console FPS games have very light aim assists, or so I’ve heard, to account for the controllers. Going from that straight into a round with no assist, against players that are used to it, will be pretty brutal. I didn’t realize Xbox gamers had aimbots fitted as standard…. Explains a lot, really. I recall the first time I went up against GPad users in a public Half-Life server, circa 1999; I was a noob, yet managed to destroy the other players. In 16 years nothing has changed, GPad users are still slow moving targets. It’s not brutal at all since it’s not necessary with a mouse. I’ve been a console gamer my entire life and just jumped into Battlefield and Arma on PC with no problem at all. If you were to jump on with a G-pad that’s a different story for most but I’ve still seen plenty of people average 2.0 k/d ratios with a controller. Actually, in a competitive setting (like Counter Strike), no one would want to move with a stick, since it takes time to move your finger from leftmost to rightmost position with a stick when it’s instant with keyboard. And well, there are gaming keypads with sticks under thumb, if you are into that kind of thing. No one bothers with that because sticks don’t give you anything valuable anyway. And gamepad is in no way jack of all trades. It’s terrible for first person and third person shooters, it’s just that the entire genre was forced to be dumbed down enough to be playable with gamepads. Gamepads also can’t be used for MOBAs, RTS and other kinds of strategies, which is the reason why those genres are non-existent on consoles. This dedication to a single input device is bad for everyone. Keyboards, on the other hand, are bad for fighers and racing games, for instance. The only good solution is using the right tool for the job, and dedicating entire industry to one input device is the opposite of that. To each it’s own. I spent a lot of years on keyboard and mouse for MMO games, FPS games and RPGs plus racing. Game pads for me in all those cases are a no brainier on console because of voice communication. Now what works best for some is not best for all but to be able to allow the gamer to choose what’s a best fit on Xbox one is genius. This will only end GREAT as far as future opportunities and opens the keyboard+mouse hardware to console owners for more variety. Microsoft new Xbox one controller is suppose to be $150 and to be honest it’s not worth $150 to me. I don’t like keyboard and mouse gaming BUT I’d spend $150 on a keyboard mouse gaming hardware or even $250 before spending that on a game pad. As for character movement, nobody said keyboard can only have keys… try a mechanical keyboard yes you are limited to 8 directions but the tactile feedback you get from the keys allows you to be much more precise and change directions much faster than with an analogue stick. imagine this i am strafing left and i want to go right with keyboard i simply stop pressing A and press D this can be done simultaneously. with an analogue stick i have to move the stick physically over from left to right this might not seem to take long but it is a good few MS slower than with a keyboard (if it supports mixed inputs so stick for movement mouse for camera thats something we might be able to check would the 360 degree analogue movement be enough for someone using stick and mouse to beat someone of equal skill using keyboard and mouse) Like I said before, nothing is perfect. Everything has its pros and cons. Gamepads are not jack of all trades, there are far more titles, genres and other uses where keyboard and mouse is supperior, for that reason Keyboard/mouse us the jack of all trades. ” character movement is horrible”, no it is not horrible, any 3.rd person or 1.person game can be controlled way more precise with K/M instead of gamepad. FPS is totally handicapped with a controller, even the best controller players cannot compare the average K/M player here in terms of precise aim and controll of character. Bottom line is for gaming, the gamepad is really great at specific genres like driving and fighting games. Across all genres the K/M will be the best tool, harder to master indeed but better. or go the more expensive route of having developers port their games back from the pc version lol. Keyboards have been supported for a very long time, but a mouse would def be handy for web browsing etc.. Mice key boards now days have all sorts of features that can give users of them advantages, unfair even. My mouse has extra programmable buttons, some mice have software in the mouse that allows for 180 movement instantaneously, certain patterns at the press of a button etc. I believe it’s called “optimizing” your play style, and not outright cheating, even if it’s outlawed in the competitive tournament play. Make consoles have to do that to compete.. Not what I want. Rather have everyone have same accuracy gimped controller xD. mouse and keyboard is only good with those using it, but those who uses a traditional controller could be equal to that of a mouse and keyboard user. To give all console games KB&M compatibility would be a HUGE step forward. Mouse and keyboard support have been around since ps2…. the issue is with the game developer. Most games made turn off that option.. so either the developer turns it on, or a firmware update will essentially make a wrapper for mouse and kb to fool the application into thinking the input comes from a standard xbox controller. Also.. mouse and kb arent the best for everything.. neither is controller only…. what you really want for best performace is a mouse for the aim and a controller for the movement… Blizzard games! StarCraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft! Many gamers will appreciate being able to use a keyboard and mouse on a Xbox. !!********Like the first Of performance extremetech…. <.. “Next-Gen consoles = Low-End PC.” the best comedy comes from the truth, from life itself. We don’t need fanboys here. Please leave. Whi said anything about fanboys?… oh, I get it… I didn’t paint msft in a holy light. (Psst, found a fanboy just now, thanks for coming out at least) Lolz. Console players are still going to get dunked on by (most) pc gamers in cross-plat play (at least in fps titles) because of lower framerate the majority of the time. I play a lot of Battlefield4 on console and have played a few times on a friends pc rig, and seeing how smoothly it plays on his 980ti ( 110fps), and my XBone dropping to sub-30 occasionally, it would be a slaughter. BUT…mouse/kb support should help balance it to some extent. As a PC Gamer who recently bought an Xbone I’m all for Mouse and Keyboard Support in games just for ease of use but for MP and cross-platform it still won’t work. Firstly, by adding M+K support for multiplayer you are immediately creating a disparity between people using a controller and those using M+K, which is the whole debate about why cross-platform between console and PC put console users at a disadvantage except you’re just bringing it in to the same house. Sure I could stick a M+K in to my console if I wanted to be competitive but I’m not going to want to trail wires for the M+K across my living room floor in favour of just sitting back and using a wireless controller (wireless M+K is generally too unreliable for gaming unless you throw $200+ down for one) Secondly, most PC gamers would still have an advantage based on hardware unless the game was 1080p@60fps on consoles – which not many are. The only way around it if not would be to cap the PC port to whatever framerate the console version runs at and as a PC gamer I can tell you that because for most of us the PC is a project and labour of love where we fine-tune and fiddle to get the best performance out of the hardware we’ve bought, we generally ignore/avoid titles that intentionally stifle our experience of a game when we know it could be faster – so don’t expect the PC player base to be more than a handful for it. tl;dr – M+K support in games will be a novel and handy addition to the Xbone but don’t expect it to be ‘the great equalizer’ or the herald of a cross-platform golden-age like some people seem to think it’s going be. Has this happen yet. great there goes fair advantages.conrtoller vs mouse/keyboard on console.when you play cod online you have to use mouse and keyboard or get owned.thats where this is going.if a nother xbox one player uses mouse and/keyboard annd you use controller you will lose.you will have to go mouse/keyboard your self if you want to compete. there goes online multiplayer imo. “To be clear, you can already use a USB mouse and keyboard with an Xbox One, but not for gaming.” Wrong. To be clear, you can already use a USB keyboard with an Xbox One, but no mouse, and certainly not for gaming. Also, certain keyboard shortcuts, that are common for all windows users, are absent in the XBO (Windows key does not bring up the main menu, Alt+Tab does not change between open apps, CTRL+/CTRL- does not change zoom in IE, Tab does not change fields, etc…) ExtremeTech Newsletter. Subscribe Today to get the latest ExtremeTech news delivered right to your inbox. More Articles. 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On Thursday, gaming site VG24/7 reported that Microsoft Poland had published a press release announcing keyboard and mouse hardware for the Xbox One. The information was deleted soon after gaming reporters noticed it, but one eagle-eyed consumer captured it in a screenshot and now the gaming community is electrified. If Microsoft does indeed release a keyboard and mouse for the Xbox, the company would be doing more than just creating two new peripherals for the system. It would also blur the line between console gaming (Xbox, Playstation) and PC gaming (Steam), shaking up the long-maintained divide between the two communities of gamers. For casual video game fans, that might not mean much. But console and PC gamers are anything but casual. They can be highly emotional and act like militant tribes when it comes to how they play. They are also part of a broader gaming world that is becoming increasingly professional. Competitive gaming and esports pulled in more revenue in 2016 than the film or music industries. The introduction of a keyboard and mouse for the Xbox could spark a ripple effect that impacts how gamers play—and how they interact with one another. Microsoft seemed to be aware of the implications of its new devices—at least based on the translation of the Polish press release. When VG24/7 ran it through Google Translate, they got this text: "Some players prefer to conquer the virtual world with a pad in hand. Others, above all, value the precision of the mouse movements. Others, however, can not imagine playing on anything other than a keyboard. Now, owners of Xbox One consoles (including Xbox One S models and the latest Xbox One X) can choose these accessories and decide for themselves what they will use. 'PC Master Race?' Thanks to the keyboard support, we can already successfully talk about ‘Xbox Master Race.'" That "master race" joke refers to the "PC master race," a tongue-in-cheek phrase that PC gamers adopted from a game review video in 2008. The Navy is planning to add Xbox 360 controllers to its Virginia-class submarines to make it easier for sailors to control the ship's periscopes. Getty Images. In September, Engadget speculated that keyboard and mouse capabilities would have a direct and immediate effect on multiplayer games, specifically first-person shooters, where PC controls give a gamer an advantage. "Microsoft would prefer," Engadget explained, "that developers offer the choice of playing only against rivals with similar controllers, so players who can't or don't want to buy extra peripherals won't be at an automatic disadvantage." There's no official release date for the Xbox One's keyboard and mouse. It certainly won't be out for Christmas 2017, but they could be the hot gaming items next year. How Xbox One Will Work With Keyboard And Mouse. Microsoft says developers will get to decide how it works. Last updated by Eddie Makuch on September 4, 2017 at 12:20AM. You are now subscribed. For a long time now, Microsoft has said the Xbox One will add support for keyboard and mouse. eventually. Now, Xbox director Mike Ybarra has confirmed that this is still coming, and in fact, we might hear about the first supported titles quite soon. Speaking at a PAX West panel this weekend, Ybarra said keyboard and mouse support is "definitely coming," adding that he's aware of the concerns people have about keyboard and mouse users having the upper hand against people using a controller. "We have to be very smart in how we do that. We'll leave it a lot up to developer choice," Ybarra said (via WindowsCentral). "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 Windows platform and the Xbox platform." Mouse and Keyboard are still coming. pic.twitter.com/jbzcQvAsyS. When keyboard and mouse support is added to Xbox, Ybarra said Microsoft will "coach" developers about best practices. One example he provided is for a game to allow players to decide who they want to play against based on controller/keyboard and mouse setup. "If you have a competitive game, people probably are going to want the choice to say I'll play with other keyboard and mouse people or I'll play only with controller people, or that I'll play with any of those," he said. "So you'll see our first games supporting keyboard and mouse soon; I can't announce what that is, but soon. And then based on developer interest, they'll choose to do keyboard and mouse going forward, or not." Microsoft's Gears of War 4 supports cross-play between Xbox One and PC, so the company is already testing the waters with controller versus keyboard and mouse setup. Xbox One players can choose whether or not they want to play with PC users. Would you like to see keyboard and mouse support on Xbox One? Let us know in the comments below! How to use a keyboard and mouse with Xbox One. It's perhaps a peculiar thought, using a keyboard and mouse with your console. After all, it's designed to be used with a controller, right? In the case of the Xbox One, the growing convergence with Windows 10 makes it a more appealing concept. Games like Halo Wars 2 are just better with a keyboard and a mouse. We know that official keyboard and mouse support is coming to the Xbox One at some point in the future, but if you can't wait, there is a way to get in on the action right now. You can use a USB keyboard for limited functions that are already official, and you have been able to for some time. It's particularly useful for sending messages and participating in Twitch or Beam chat. But if you're remotely interested in keyboard and mouse support, it's probably for gaming reasons. For that, for now, you need some help. Say hello to XIM 4. YouTuber Austin Evans demonstrating the XIM 4. One method uses a product called the XIM 4, and it's a pretty ordinary-looking thing that acts as a go-between for the keyboard and mouse and translates the input signal to something the Xbox One can understand. It looks like a USB hub, and the set-up process is not exactly elegant, but it does work. As you can see in the video above — where YouTuber Austin Evans demonstrates it — for all intents and purposes the XIM 4 makes it just like you're gaming on a PC. Latency is very low and judging by the legion of happy fans online, it's reliable, too. But it's also not particularly cheap at around $150. If you just have to have keyboard and mouse support right now , the XIM 4 is the way to go. Otherwise, just wait it out with the rest of us and let Microsoft do the work. Another option . An alternative to the XIM 4 that costs a little less is the CronusMax. The idea is the same, in that it's a USB device that acts as a go-between for a keyboard and mouse, translating it into a controller input for the console to understand. The CronusMax also lets you use any controller on any console, or so its boasts. If for some mad reason you'd prefer to use a PlayStation 4 DualShock controller on your Xbox One, by hooking up through the CronusMax, you can. At less than $70, it's a lot cheaper than the XIM 4 as well. Updated September 27, 2017: We added details of an alternative method, the CronusMax, to the guide. Microsoft to Bring Keyboard and Mouse Support to Xbox One. Xbox One users may soon have a new way to interact with their console. Speaking on Twitter, Xbox chief Phil Spencer revealed in a conversation with a fan that the engineers at Microsoft were working on mouse and keyboard compatibility for the current-gen console. @lgriao @PNF4LYFE @Tak225Th Yep, keyboard and mouse support for Xbox would need to be there for this to work, those aren't far away. The Xbox One has allowed for keyboard use in basic text inputs, but no use of a mouse has ever been implemented. It remains unclear what range of recognized mouse inputs will be integrated, or approximately when this functionality will become available. IGN has reached out to Microsoft for additional information. Several changes to the Xbox One have forged a deeper connection between the console and Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system, including in-home streaming and the Xbox app. Cassidee is a freelance writer and the co-host of a podcast about freelancing. You can chat with her about that and all other things geeky on Twitter . © 1996-2018 Ziff Davis, LLC. We have updated our PRIVACY POLICY and encourage you to read it by clicking here. IGN uses cookies and other tracking technologies to customize online advertisements, and for other purposes. IGN supports the Digital Advertising Alliance principles. Learn More. How to Use a Mouse and Keyboard for Xbox One Games. Also DualShock 4, Wii Remote and any other combination of controllers you'd care to mention. Computer and console modders embody the "where there's a will, there's a way" philosophy to a tee; generally speaking, if you've ever thought "wouldn't it be nice if. " then someone, somewhere has probably already unlocked the facility to do so. Such is the case with the CronusMAX, a gizmo that will plug in to pretty much any USB-equipped computer or console and allow you to make use of controllers that weren't originally designed for that system. In other words, you could be using your DualShock 4 on a PC, or a Wii Remote on an Xbox 360. Most recently, mod team Team Xecuter has been working on adding Xbox One support to the CronusMAX device, and has succeeded in their efforts. The device, when plugged into an Xbox One, now supports keyboard and mouse; DualShock 3 and 4 in wired and wireless modes; Xbox 360 controllers in wired and wireless modes; PS3- and Xbox 360-compatible arcade sticks; Wii Remotes; and Wii U Pro controllers. The Xbox One supports also allows you to make use of the CronusMAX's scripting and macro functionality, effectively turning any controller into a programmable input device -- particularly useful for those of us who are not very good at inputting fighting game command combinations. Here's a video of the device working its magic on Xbox One. CronusMAX is simply a plug-in USB device rather than something you have to open up your console and solder into place, so it's safe to use and shouldn't invalidate your warranty. Similar devices have been around for previous-generation consoles for a while -- I own several cables that allow me to connect DualShock 2s to the PlayStation 3's USB ports, for example -- but CronusMAX takes things a step further than a simple compatibility cable with its programming functionality and customization features, with the ability to set up different profiles for different control schemes and games, then switch between them as required. Find out more about the device and where to get it on the official site. This article may contain links to online retail stores. If you click on one and buy the product we may receive a small commission. For more information, go here. More from USgamer. Super Mario Animated Movie Announced, Shigeru Miyamoto Co-Producing. Also brought to you by the producer of Despicable Me. Mario Kart Tour Is Nintendo's Next Mobile Game. It's not coming until next fiscal year though. By Mike Williams 3. Nintendo Switch Online Service Arriving September 2018. After much delay, Nintendo is rolling out its online service later this year. Overwatch Update Delivers 4K Support to Xbox One X, Nerfs to Mercy and Junkrat. Goodbye Mercy, I hardly knew ye. Covering the best in video gaming. News, previews and reviews of the latest Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and Wii U games. Plus features about classic retro consoles! This site © 2018 Gamer Network. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site or its content may be reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder. How to Connect a Physical Keyboard to Your Xbox One. Microsoft’s Xbox One has limited support for some types of physical keyboards, but not mice. Connect a keyboard and you can use it to type text more conveniently than using the on-screen keyboard with your controller. For additional input options, you can install the Xbox One SmartGlass app on your phone or tablet. It gives you a keyboard and touchpad you can use to navigate the interface via your phone. The Limitations of Keyboard-on-Xbox. There are some big limitations to the Xbox One’s keyboard support, including: Keyboards Only, No Mice : The Xbox One only supports keyboards. You can’t connect a mouse to your console. USB Only, No Bluetooth : You must have a keyboard that connects via USB. The Xbox One doesn’t include a Bluetooth radio, so it can’t connect to Bluetooth keyboards or headsets. Your keyboard can be wireless, but it needs a wireless dongle that plugs into a USB port. It’s Only for Text Input, Not Controlling Games : The keyboard can only be used for text input, and not for controlling any games. Support for USB keyboards didn’t ship with the original Xbox One console, but was added in the February 2014 system update. Microsoft has promised that the Xbox One will gain better support for keyboards as well as support for mice in the future. For now, the Xbox One is significantly behind Sony’s PlayStation 4, which allows the use of mice, supports Bluetooth as well as USB, and allows games to use keyboard and mice for input, if the game developer chooses to allow it. How to Connect a Keyboard to Your Xbox One. Connecting a keyboard to your Xbox One is simple. Just plug the keyboard into one of the USB ports on the console–either one of the two on the rear, or one on the left side, near the disc slot. If you have a wireless keyboard with a USB dongle, plug the USB dongle into your Xbox One. Your keyboard should immediately work. You won’t see a notification pop up, and there’s no screen to configure it. You won’t even see it as a connected device if you head to All Settings > Kinect & Devices > Devices & Accessories, where you might think you would. The arrow keys and Enter keys will allow you to navigate the dashboard. You can also use the keyboard to type in text fields throughout the Xbox One’s interface, including in Microsoft Edge. Various keyboard shortcuts work–the Windows key on the keyboard will take you back to the Xbox One’s dashboard, for example. Unfortunately, the limitations are quickly apparent. You can use the Tab and Enter keys to navigate web page and select links in Edge, but it’s still awkward. Without a mouse, the keyboard is better used as a quick input method for chatting and entering text into the interface rather than a first-class input method for navigating the Xbox One’s interface and using apps. How to Play Xbox One Games With a Keyboard and Mouse. Even when the Xbox One receives official support for mice and better support for keyboards, it still likely won’t be possible to play most games using keyboards and mice. Console games are designed with controllers in mind, and multiplayer games don’t want to mix keyboard and mouse users with controller users. That’s why so few games support cross-platform multiplayer between PCs and consoles. The unofficial way around this limitation is to buy a device like the Xim 4 adapter, which also works with PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. The adapter allows you to connect a keyboard and mouse to your Xbox One. The adapter translates the keyboard and mouse input into Xbox One controller input, allowing you to play Xbox One games with a keyboard and mouse like you’d play PC games with these peripherals. This adapter is pricey at $150, but has excellent reviews. You can find alternative adapters for less money on Amazon, but their reviews seem more hit and miss. For example, MayFlash makes a $50 alternative with more uneven reviews. If Microsoft truly plans to bring PCs and the Xbox One closer together, hopefully better mouse and keyboard support arrives soon. Unfortunately, without integrated Bluetooth radio hardware, the Xbox One will never be able to conveniently support all those wireless Bluetooth mice and keyboards many people have lying around. Chris Hoffman is a technology writer and all-around computer geek. He's as at home using the Linux terminal as he is digging into the Windows registry. Connect with him on Twitter. Did You Know. In 2006, William Shatner sold his kidney stone for $25,000, then donated the money to Habitat for Humanity. Best of How-To Geek. Get the HTG Newsletter. Join 100,000 other subscribers. Follow How-To Geek. More Articles You Might Like. Enter your email address to get our daily newsletter. Join the How-To Geek Club! (It's Free) ✕ Get exclusive articles before everybody else. Get downloadable ebooks for free! Get geeky trivia, fun facts, and much more. Microsoft Confirms Xbox One Will Get Keyboard and Mouse Support. One of the big differentiators between gaming on a PC compared to a games console is the method of input. On PC, you will more than likely be using a keyboard and mouse, while on a games console it will be a game pad. And that difference has stayed pretty much the same since games consoles were first introduced. PCs have game pads, but keyboard and mouse is by far and away the most popular input method. For the Xbox One, Microsoft is planning to embrace keyboard and mouse support. As Gameguru Mania reports, Mike Ybarra, corporate vice president of Xbox & Windows gaming platform at Microsoft, confirmed as much during a Q&A panel held at PAX West. Mouse and Keyboard are still coming. pic.twitter.com/jbzcQvAsyS. Ybarra rightly highlights "fairness" as a key concern. That's because players using a keyboard and mouse enjoy a clear advantage over those using a controller in specific types of game, most notably first-person shooters. Add in competitive multiplayer gaming and you can see how unfair that could be. The solution Microsoft is most likely going to use to that problem is developer choice. A game can support keyboard and mouse input if the developers wants it there. If they do, then multiplayer will also require giving the player the choice of only playing against others using the same control method. That way no one player gets an advantage simply by using one input method over the other. For now, support is still referred to as coming soon, but Ybarra says when it does appear it will be alongside games that are confirmed as including it as a control option. Hopefully that's going to happen before the end of the year, but it may slip into 2018 as Microsoft focuses on marketing the Xbox One X for the holiday season. About the Author. Matthew is PCMag's UK-based editor and news reporter. Prior to joining the team, he spent 14 years writing and editing content on our sister site Geek.com and has covered most areas of technology, but is especially passionate about games tech. Alongside PCMag, he's a freelance video game designer. Matthew holds a BSc degree in Computer Science from. See Full Bio. More From Matthew. Sony Patents Tip Redesigned PlayStation VR Controller. Report: New Wireless Charging iPhone SE Expected by June. MoviePass Stops Working at Several AMC Theaters. Walmart Takes on Kindle With Kobo E-Reader Deal. NASA Tests Folding Wings for More Efficient Flight. Build a smarter home with tips, how-to stories, product reviews, and more delivered right to your inbox. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. // Related Articles. Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest About Us PCMag Digital Edition Newsletters Encyclopedia RSS Feed More From Ziff Davis: Computer Shopper ExtremeTech Geek AskMen Everyday Health IGN Offers.com Speedtest.net TechBargains Toolbox What to Expect RSS Feeds Site Map Contact Us Privacy Policy. PC, PC Magazine and PC PCMag.com are among the federally registered trademarks of. Ziff Davis, LLC and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission. We have updated our PRIVACY POLICY and encourage you to read it by clicking here. Xbox One keyboard and mouse support possible. Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" says if developers are interested in adding that support, "we'll certainly help them do that." Last updated by Eddie Makuch on October 8, 2013 at 2:55PM. You are now subscribed. The Xbox One may add keyboard and mouse support sometime in the future, Microsoft director of Xbox Live programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb has revealed. During a Newegg TV interview (via Videogamer), Hryb said if developers are interested in adding that kind of support, Microsoft will assist in making it happen. "We'll certainly have this great SDK for developers to do what they like. If that's something they're interested in doing, we'll certainly help them do that," Hryb said. Hryb said designing for a 2-foot PC gaming experience is different than a nine or ten-foot console experience, so developers "have to be really focused on what is that like and are maximizing for the largest possible audience." "Certainly it's possible, but we don't have anything to announce at this time," he said. Currently On Xbox 360, players can connect a keyboard for text input, but mice are not supported. Hryb said even if the Xbox One does add mouse and keyboard support, the PC and console control styles don't exactly match up. "We kind of have this concept of when you're playing a PC game you're leaning forward," Hryb said. "With an Xbox game, sometimes you lean back. You're just kinda having fun. And I don't want to incite the religious debate that will ensue, because I'm very aware. We want to provide a gaming experience that people enjoy, certainly with Windows--that's our other large gaming platform at Microsoft. So there's something there, but right now we're really focused on really the console space." The Xbox One launches on November 22. The console's controller features a number of updates over its predecessor, including new thumbstick shape and grip texture, a redesigned D-Pad, and triggers with haptic feedback. In addition, the Xbox One controller automatically knows who is playing when the controller is passed to a friend, thanks to the pad pairing with Kinect. Lastly, the battery pack is inside the controller's body, allowing players more room to hold the pad.