Xbox Cloud Gaming has added keyboard and mouse support for PC and browsers (sorta)
It’s in beta for now, with a select group of games compatible
Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft’s game-streaming platform, finally lets you actually use a keyboard and mouse to play on PC. There’s a bit of a catch for now, though, in that it’s only a beta test for now with a small selection of games supported. Still, it’s something!
The latest Xbox Update Preview - offered to those who’ve opted into the experimental Xbox Insider programme for testing non-final features in the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring - introduces keyboard and mouse support when using Xbox Cloud Gaming through the Xbox App on PC or supported browsers - Chrome and Edge, for now.
If you’re not yet part of the PC Gaming Preview group, you can go and give it a try yourself now on browser by heading to your profile, visiting the settings page and opting in to enable preview features.
The functionality is in a beta phase, with just over a dozen games compatible with keyboard and mouse - including the likes of Ark: Survival Evolved, Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Halo Infinite and, curiously, older games Doom 64 and Age of Empires 2 - while Fortnite currently only works through a browser and Atomic Heart has a flagged issue with switching over from a controller.
The experimental nature also means you should expect some other quirks, such as games continuing to display controller button prompts in their UI rather than keys and needing to run games in full-screen if you’re on a browser (you can hit F9 to exit out again).
Cloud Gaming’s mouse and keyboard support is expected to roll out to more users who aren’t in the (not so) super-secret Insider programme in due course, adding more games along the way. Those games may well include RSI-inducing mouse-clicker Diablo 4 after it arrives on Game Pass tomorrow (while still requiring a Battle.net account, FYI).