Mouse and keyboard support is coming to Xbox cloud games

I might finally start using Xbox Cloud Gaming (oft called xCloud) thanks to an upcoming, much-needed addition: mouse and keyboard support.

Currently, Microsoft’s game streaming service only supports gamepads and touch (on limited titles). While there’s nothing wrong with those options, I’ve found that restriction to be one of the main reasons I don’t use xCloud. The few times I’ve wanted to try xCloud games, I couldn’t because I didn’t have a controller handy. What did I have? Yup, a keyboard and a mouse.

Windows Central spotted the news in a developer Q&A video. A comment from Jorg Neumann, the head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, at 8:40 confirmed that xCloud keyboard and mouse support was on the way.

“The next step for us is mouse [and] keyboard,” Neumann said. “This is platform-level support, so it has nothing to do with us. Obviously, mouse and keyboard works for our sim. So the platform team is working on this. I know I can’t give a date because it’s the platform team. I don’t know their dates, but it’s coming.”

Neumann also said Flight Simulator would get touch control support in the future, and expressed interest in adding gyroscope support for mobile devices. Both would make Flight Simulator much more accessible on mobile devices, which can access the title now thanks to its recent arrival on xCloud.

Despite the lack of a timeline, it’s great to know that mouse and keyboard support is on the way. xCloud, to me, has always stood out as a great way to game on the go or for testing games before committing to a download. For the former, I often have a laptop with me when I’m away from home — mouse and keyboard support would make it much easier to use that for xCloud. For game testing, mouse and keyboard support would make it much easier to try PC titles like Age of Empires IV.

Source: Developer Q&A Via: Windows Central