Microsoft has announced that keyboard and mouse support will officially be coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming at some point in the (hopefully) near future, although it seems that only PC support has been confirmed for xCloud thus far.
Revealed in a new Xbox Game Streaming presentation for developers (thanks Tom Warren for spotting it!), it was mentioned that the team is working on adding the KB&M cloud functionality for PC game streaming users:
"Not everyone knows, Xbox has supported keyboard and mouse for a few years now, and we're working on adding it to streaming for PC users, but you can start adding it to your game right now and your console keyboard and mouse users will appreciate it. It will light up in streaming when we finish adding it."
We've seen a lot of people taking this to mean that keyboard and mouse support is coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming for console as well as PC, but we're not 100% sure about that right now, as the wording seems to suggest that only PC is confirmed for the time being. Plus, Xbox Principal Engineering Lead Elliot Chong followed up this announcement on Twitter yesterday by simply stating "we see you, PC gamers".
However, it was suggested months ago by the Microsoft Flight Simulator team that keyboard and mouse support could be coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming for console relatively soon, so who knows? Hopefully we'll find out more shortly.
Happy with this? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 4
I always assumed, incorrectly it seems, that K&M support would have already been there on PC games. Glad to hear it's coming.
Seems to suggest it'll just be for console games that support keyboard and mouse at the moment, but hopefully this is leading up to them having PC games streaming too
I don't know how to read this. It seems that K&M support should be added by 'devs' when setting up their games for streaming services and 'reminding' them that the Console has supported K&M for years.
Microsoft put out a LOT of video's yesterday regarding development, publishing and streaming, especially on setting the game up 'correctly' to minimise input lag etc - telling devs to ALWAYS select any 'Performance' based modes over 'high res' 30fps modes, to set the max res at 1440p for 'direct capture' which saves on latency, how to avoid 'compression' artefacts etc etc - all things to 'help' make games look and feel like they are playing natively and of course fit whatever 'screen' with clear UI (not too small or big). Of course on Series X, the visual difference is more pronounced due to a 1080p stream so looks 'softer' than native.
I'm sure that K&M streaming support will come to Console as it makes sense that all devices ultimately offer the 'same' options across all supported platforms. They keep talking about playing ANY game on ANY device at ANYTIME. To do that, they need EVERY game to be playable on EVERY device and K&M, as well as fully Customisable control schemes make that possible. The more people that can play in a way that makes sense and comfortable for them, the better. It opens up more inclusivity across the entire Xbox Ecosystem...
Hooray! This is a sorely missing feature for Xcloud. Yes a lot of people play PC games with controllers, and the games on the service are designed for controllers, but being FORCED to use one is just silly.
Also a lot of the games on the service already have keyboard support on both Xbox and PC. So I can play Sea of Thieves with a keyboard on Xbox, or PC, but not if I play through the cloud on Xbox or PC???
This'll be a big boon for the service on PC, and hopefully it'll mean they'll add more PC specific games to the service.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...