Microsoft had previously revealed that it is working on bringing mouse and keyboard support to its Xbox One. This was not a formal standalone announcement and instead executive vice president of gaming for the company, Phil Spencer, made the announcement in the Inside Xbox episode for September 25, 2018. The company added that the first game to receive this support will be “long-running free-to-play MMO” Warframe. The support was scheduled to arrive in October through the Xbox Insider Program. But now the company has declared that the mouse and keyboard support will be arriving on November 14, and it will not be exclusive to Xbox Insider Program.
Microsoft has now confirmed that support will not be confined to Warframe at launch, and there will be a list of other games that will get support as well. And one of those early games to get support will be one of the most popular battle royale games in the world, Fortnite, from Epic Games. But this will mean that players using mouse and keyboard on Xbox One playing Fortnite will only be matched with other players doing so as well to maintain parity.
Other games that will also be getting support in November include Vermintide 2, War Thunder, Strange Brigade, Bomber Crew, Deep Rock Galactic. While other games like DayZ will be getting the support in the coming weeks.
🐭+ ⌨️ + #Xbox = 🤗#X018 #InsideXbox pic.twitter.com/TPEKNrOgux
— Xbox (@Xbox) November 10, 2018
Since most mouse and keyboards will not work with the Xbox One, Microsoft will be starting a “Designed for Xbox” program that will see hardware being made with the Xbox One in mind. Razer is right now the exclusive partner for Xbox, and is developing a Designed for Xbox mouse and keyboard combo that will be unveiled at CES 2019.
