Home Mouse and keyboard now supported in Xbox Cloud Gaming

Mouse and keyboard now supported in Xbox Cloud Gaming

Xbox Insiders can start testing out mouse and keyboard support within Cloud Gaming from this week across Edge, Chrome, or the Xbox app on Windows PCs.

This Monday (Mar. 25) Microsoft released the news addressing the Insiders as they can start running this new support almost two years after the company first announced it was working on this addition to the service.

In a YouTube video titled ‘Xbox Game Streaming: Reducing Latency and Optimizing for the Best Mobile Experiences’ published a year ago, software engineer Morgan Brown said: “Xbox has been supporting keyword and mouse for a few years now, and we’re working on adding it to streaming for PC users.

“But you can start adding it to your game right now and your console keyboard and mouse users will appreciate it…”

For those on browsers, Microsoft says the “game stream needs to be in full screen mode to work with mouse and keyboard. Players can hold the ESC key at any time to exit full-screen mode.”

“The player must then click on the game stream element explicitly for it to capture your pointer. Otherwise, the mouse input won’t be sent to the game. Players can press F9 to exit mouse and keyboard use for the game.”

Some games will display controller UI elements, but this will be adapted to the sought-after mouse and keyboard input after the player has started to use this to interact with the game.

Mouse and keyboard to be available in numerous games

Not all games will be supported, at least to begin with. The currently supported titles include:

  • 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
  • Age of Empires 2

Featured Image: Photo by Onur Binay on Unsplash

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Sophie Atkinson
Tech Journalist

Sophie Atkinson is a UK-based journalist and content writer, as well as a founder of a content agency which focuses on storytelling through social media marketing. She kicked off her career with a Print Futures Award which champions young talent working in print, paper and publishing. Heading straight into a regional newsroom, after graduating with a BA (Hons) degree in Journalism, Sophie started by working for Reach PLC. Now, with five years experience in journalism and many more in content marketing, Sophie works as a freelance writer and marketer. Her areas of specialty span a wide range, including technology, business,…

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