For a long time now, Microsoft has said the Xbox One will add support for keyboard and mouse...eventually. Now, Xbox director Mike Ybarra has confirmed that this is still coming, and in fact, we might hear about the first supported titles quite soon. Speaking at a PAX West panel this weekend, Ybarra said keyboard and mouse support is "definitely coming," adding that he's aware of the concerns people have about keyboard and mouse users having the upper hand against people using a controller.
"We have to be very smart in how we do that. We'll leave it a lot up to developer choice," Ybarra said (via WindowsCentral). "A lot of people tweet me and say, 'You can't do this because of fairness,' and we understand that. We run two platforms; the Windows platform and the Xbox platform."
Mouse and Keyboard are still coming... pic.twitter.com/jbzcQvAsyS
— Xbox E3 Fans (@XboxE3Fans) September 2, 2017
When keyboard and mouse support is added to Xbox, Ybarra said Microsoft will "coach" developers about best practices. One example he provided is for a game to allow players to decide who they want to play against based on controller/keyboard and mouse setup.
"If you have a competitive game, people probably are going to want the choice to say I'll play with other keyboard and mouse people or I'll play only with controller people, or that I'll play with any of those," he said. "So you'll see our first games supporting keyboard and mouse soon; I can't announce what that is, but soon. And then based on developer interest, they'll choose to do keyboard and mouse going forward, or not."
Microsoft's Gears of War 4 supports cross-play between Xbox One and PC, so the company is already testing the waters with controller versus keyboard and mouse setup. Xbox One players can choose whether or not they want to play with PC users.
Would you like to see keyboard and mouse support on Xbox One? Let us know in the comments below!