Xbox Cloud Gaming Getting Mouse and Keyboard Support

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Image: Microsoft

Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft’s awesome game streaming service that allows even some of today’s most demanding titles to be enjoyed on weaker PCs or older-gen consoles such as the Xbox One, is about to get a feature that will rectify one of the worst aspects of console gaming: the lack of mouse and keyboard support.

The news comes from head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann, who revealed in a recent community Q&A that mouse and keyboard support would not only be coming to the cloud version of his critically acclaimed flight game, but all Xbox Cloud Gaming titles, as the feature is being implemented on a platform level. A list of FPS, RTS, and other titles that should be less of a chore to play thanks to the addition of mouse and keyboard support can be found here.

“This is a platform level support, so it has nothing to do with us, obviously mouse/keyboard works for our sim,” Neumann explained. “So the platform team is working on this, and no I can’t give a date because it’s the platform team. I don’t know their dates, but it’s coming, and we are also talking about making touch work.”

“I would say it’s in the next months, it’s not weeks, and it might be… I’m hoping it will be done by June or so, but I can’t ever tell,” he added, before insisting that mouse and keyboard support for Xbox Cloud titles was happening. “Everybody wants it, I want it, and so… it’s coming.”

Mouse and keyboard support is coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming (Windows Central)

  • Xbox Cloud Gaming, formerly known as Xbox Project xCloud, has continued to expand since its 2019 trials, since launching with an Android-native app, plus a web-based app available for iOS and desktop PCs. Microsoft also introduced Xbox console support in late 2021, later allowing Xbox Series X|S exclusives like Microsoft Flight Simulator to make the jump to aging Xbox One consoles.
  • Mouse and keyboard support would provide a new option for cloud gaming, accompanying existing alternatives geared to phones. Microsoft has a growing list of touch-enabled titles, retrofitting custom on-screen touch inputs upon Xbox streaming, mimicking native mobile gaming. The company has also experimented with gyroscope inputs, allowing users to control some games by moving their phones.
  • Neumann also stated that Microsoft Flight Simulator would get touch controls in the months ahead, expressing interest in adding gyroscope support on mobiles. While the Flight Simulator head emphasized that timelines remain uncertain, the team hopes to debut the future in the first half of 2022.
Tsing Mui
News poster at The FPS Review.

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