It's taken much longer than expected, but it's finally bringing keyboard and mouse (KBM) support to certain titles. that the company had planned to do so in March 2022 and it was suggested that the option could be available for that month of June, but evidently that did not happen. Only now is Microsoft starting to In the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring, check out KBM features in web browsers (Edge and Chrome) and the Xbox app for PC. The feature should be available more widely soon.
To test KBM support, you'll need to be a Game Pass Ultimate subscriber (unless you want to check it out on , which is totally ). You must also register for the . If you're testing KBM support in a web browser, there's one more step: you'll need to enable Preview features in your browser. To do that, click on your profile photo at xbox.com/playselect Settings and then turn on “Preview Features”.
Some supported games may still display controller elements on the screen at first. You may be prompted to press A to start the game or something. However, the game should switch to the KBM UI as soon as you move the cursor or press a button. In browsers, KBM will only work when you are playing in full screen mode and have clicked on the game stream so that it recognizes mouse input. You can exit using KBM by pressing F9 or holding down the ESC button to exit full screen mode.
The first Xbox Cloud Gaming titles to get KBM support are fortnite (browsers only), Ark Survival Evolved, Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Halo Infinite, Atomic Heart, Sniper Elite 5, Deep Rock Galactic, High on Life, Zombie Army 4 Dead War, Gears Tactics, Pentiment, Doom 64 and age of empires 2. There is a known issue for atomic heart At the minute. Microsoft notes that there are some difficulties switching between a controller and KMB while streaming that game.
This is a welcome update, especially for those who want to play first-person shooters with a KBM setup but don't have a PC with enough oomph to run current games natively. It's also a good step forward for accessibility. Xbox's cloud gaming tech is pretty solid, but we hope it can keep up fortnite players who can build elaborate structures in nanoseconds.
