Microsoft has not added many new features to its Xbox Cloud Gaming service for a while now. However, today, the company revealed that some members of the Xbox Insider program will be among the first to try out a much-requested feature: playing Xbox Cloud Gaming titles with a mouse and keyboard.
In posts on the Xbox Wire site, Microsoft confirmed that Xbox Insiders in the Beta, Delta, and Omega rings can play a small selection of Xbox Cloud Gaming titles on their PCs with a mouse and keyboard. This support is available for playing on the service with Microsoft"s Edge and Google"s Chrome web browser, along with the Xbox app for Windows PCs.
The selection of titles that have added mouse and keyboard support 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
Microsoft does note that for Atomic Heart, there is a known issue with mouse and keyboard input:
There is some difficulty switching between gamepad (controller) and Mouse and Keyboard while streaming game
In addition, Xbox Insiders should be aware of the following items while using the mouse and keyboard with Xbox Cloud Gaming:
Some games will display controller UI elements (e.g., “press A to start”) by default. Their UI will adapt to Mouse & Keyboard input only after player has started to use Mouse/Keyboard to interact with the game (moving the cursor and/or pressing keys)
On browser:
- 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 click on the game stream element explicitly for it to “capture your pointer”. Otherwise, your mouse input won’t be sent to the game.
- Players can press F9 to exit mouse and keyboard use for the game
There"s no word yet on when this new feature will be generally available for all Xbox Cloud Gaming users or if it will expand to include access to Samsung smart TVs and monitors or other platforms where the service is available.