Mouse and keyboard support coming soon to Xbox One

Microsoft’s Xbox One will finally offer keyboard and mouse support for some games. Phil Spencer, executive vice president of gaming at Microsoft, made the announcement during Tuesday’s episode of Inside Xbox. The first game to test the feature will be Crytek’s Warface in October via the Xbox Insider Program.

While the feature will be available for developers to implement in the near future, it’s not a global decision that Microsoft is making for all of the games on its platform. Spencer stressed that the idea is to open the Xbox One up to different experiences.

“You shouldn’t expect that every game on the platform now supports mouse and keyboard,” Spencer said. “It’s really about developer choice.”

“These are tools for developers,” Spencer continued. “There are certain games out there that require mouse and keyboard, and those can’t come to console today. If we put those tools in the hands of developers, we’ll get more of those games.”

Warface is a long-running free-to-play online shooter from the makers of the Crysis series. It was first released in 2013. On Tuesday it entered Xbox Live Game Preview, Microsoft’s version of early access.

Spencer said that customers’ existing USB-compatible mice and keyboards will work with the Xbox One. He also confirmed rumors from earlier this year that computer and peripheral manufacturer Razer was working with Microsoft on a custom keyboard and mouse set. There’s no word on when that will be released, although Microsoft is saying that it will go into details in November during its revived X018 trade show.