Unsurprisingly: Keyboard and Mouse Coming to Xbox One - The UpStream

Unsurprisingly: Keyboard and Mouse Coming to Xbox One

posted Saturday Jul 25, 2015 by Scott Ertz

Unsurprisingly: Keyboard and Mouse Coming to Xbox One

As Microsoft's One Microsoft philosophy continues to show its face to the public, expected features continue to reveal themselves as well. This week, speaking on Twitter Xbox head Phil Spencer semi-announced that keyboard and mouse support are coming to the Xbox One soon. Now, if you think about it, this should be no surprise to anyone. The Xbox One will soon be running on Windows 10, which is introducing keyboard and mouse support to Windows Phones, so naturally a migration to the Xbox was the next step.

Now, what we do not know is how useful keyboard and mouse input will be. It could be as simple as replicating Kinect hand pointing with the mouse pointer, or it could migrate its way into gameplay capabilities. Once the console supports the input, it would likely be up to game developers to put the input device to use, though, meaning not every game would support the input initially (or ever, really). There might be a plan, however, to map one control system to the other, allowing either input scheme to work on any game, which would be pretty great.

The capability would definitely give the console an interesting migration path for games. Pushing Xbox games to the PC is a pretty natural migration, as a game could always require a paired Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller, or support third parties, like Logitech. Moving a PC title to the console, however, could be less natural. If the game is complex and requires more buttons than a controller supports, a keyboard and mouse would be the only option for a port.

In addition to gaming implications, this could bring some really interesting new options for apps to the console. Making the browser experience better is just the beginning. Apps like TeamViewer, which already support Windows and Windows Phone, could allow you to stream your PC to the Xbox, making the concept of a fully-functional living room PC experience far easier than what currently exists.

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