Xbox Cloud Gaming begins testing mice and keyboards

Xbox is adding mouse and keyboard support to its cloud gaming service, and support is currently being tested. To play games in the cloud with Xbox Game Pass, you need an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. However, to play games in the cloud with mouse and keyboard support, you’ll need to become an Xbox Insider. This is one of the key elements supporting these input methods introduced into services.

In particular, you must be an insider in the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring. Microsoft has multiple Insider groups, and not everyone will have access to this new feature. What’s more, it’s only available for a few games. However, there’s a good chance Microsoft will expand support to more games in the future. At the moment, participants in the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring can try out mouse and keyboard input in games such as Fortnite, ARK Survival Evolved, Sea of ​​Thieves, Grounded, Halo Infinite, and Atomic Heart. Microsoft also highlights known issues with certain games.

For example, Atomic Heart has issues when players stream the game and try to switch between controller and mouse and keyboard input. Other supported games include Sniper Elite 5, Deep Rock Gacular, High On Life, Zombie Army 4 Dead War, Gears Tactics, Pentiment, Doom 64, and Age of Empires 2.

Xbox cloud gaming mouse and keyboard support doesn’t work on mobile

Microsoft’s cloud gaming efforts lend themselves well to mobile play. However, if you’re streaming games to your mobile device using the Xbox Game Pass app for Android or iOS, mouse and keyboard support won’t work.

At this time, it only works when you stream games using the Chrome or Edge browser, or when you stream games using the Xbox app on a Windows PC. Perhaps Microsoft will extend this as it makes sense. However, it’s unclear whether that support will include mobile or more browsers and possibly MacOS.

Microsoft also hasn’t confirmed whether it will expand support beyond Windows and the two browsers mentioned above. It’s worth noting that in some games, controller UI elements are visible even after you set up your mouse and keyboard. However, Microsoft says that once a player starts playing the game with a mouse and keyboard, this will adapt to his UI elements for the mouse and keyboard.

Players can also easily switch to controller mode using the quick key shortcut of pressing Alt + F9.

March 26, 2024