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Xbox is adding mouse and keyboard support to its cloud gaming service, with the support currently in testing. To play games in the cloud with Xbox Game Pass, you need an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. But to play games in the cloud with mouse and keyboard support you’ll need to be an Xbox Insider. This is one of the key factors in support of these input methods coming to the service.
You’ll specifically need to be an Insider on the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring. Microsoft has more than one ring of Insiders and not all of them will have access to this new feature. What’s more, is that it’s only arriving for a smaller selection of games. Although, it’s quite likely Microsoft will expand the support to more games down the road. For now, those on the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring can try out the mouse and keyboard inputs with games like Fortnite, ARK Survival Evolved, Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Halo Infinite, Atomic Heart, and more. Microsoft also highlights known issues with certain games.
For example, Atomic Heart has difficulty when players stream the game and attempt to switch between the controller and the mouse and keyboard inputs. Additional supported games include Sniper Elite 5, Deep Rock Galactic, 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 with mobile
Microsoft’s cloud gaming efforts are extremely well suited to mobile play. But mouse and keyboard support doesn’t work if you’re streaming games to your mobile device using the Xbox Game Pass app for Android or iOS.
For now, it only works when streaming the games using Chrome or Edge browsers, or with the Xbox app on Windows PCs. Presumably, Microsoft will expand this as it would make sense. But it’s unclear if that support would include mobile or just more browsers and maybe MacOS.
Microsoft also doesn’t confirm if they’ll expand support to anything other than Windows and the two browsers listed above. Worth noting is that some games will still show controller UI elements even after setting up mouse and keyboard. However, Microsoft says this will adapt to mouse and keyboard UI elements once players begin playing the game with them.
Players can also easily switch back to controller mode with a quick key shortcut by pressing Alt + F9.