It has been suggested that Microsoft could be looking to bring support for keyboard and mouse onto the Xbox, but official support has yet to arrive. Instead it seems that gamers have had to use workarounds which involves the use of adapters. However not everyone is thrilled by that, and Microsoft has recently spoken up about that.
In a post on Twitter in response to gamers asking about what Microsoft plans to do about it, Microsoft’s Mike Ybarra responded by saying that it is up to developers to choose whether or not they want to ban the use of such devices in their games. Some have criticized Ybarra’s response as some feel that the onus should be on Microsoft to decide what can or cannot be done with their console.
Developers have the choice to use APIs that detect and not allow these. It’s up to them, but the capability is there. https://t.co/jE97R6oj0c
— Mike Ybarra (@XboxQwik) February 18, 2018
However Ybarra responded by saying that keyboard and mouse combos have their uses, such as accessibility, and that they’d prefer empowering developers rather than policing what they can or cannot do. “We could but there are helpful scenarios with these devices (accessibility for one). Our general approach is to empower the developer to manage their game how they want.”
Some developers, such as Blizzard, have also expressed their concern about console gamers using a keyboard and mouse combo, which in FPS games could give them an unfair advantage over gamers who are using traditional controllers.