Microsoft: keyboard and mouse support coming – latency improvements planned

Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming will soon support mouse and keyboard input. In addition, there should be significant improvements in latency.

After the in-house console has been supporting the option for a while, Microsoft announced the project for the Xbox cloud gaming service months ago. Now developers and users should be prepared for the fact that the feature should be available soon.

Mouse and keyboard support for Xbox Cloud Gaming announced via developer video

A new developer video that Microsoft has published on YouTube currently only speaks of support for PC systems, but it is considered likely that the feature could also be made available for other end devices. After all, the Xbox Cloud Gaming service not only includes computers, but also smartphones or modern smart TVs.

“Xbox has had keyboard and mouse support for a number of years, and we’re working to bring the same to streaming PC users,” said Morgan Brown, software engineer on Microsoft’s Xbox streaming team. “But you can add it to your game right now, and your console users with keyboard and mouse will appreciate it. It will light up in streaming as soon as we add it,” it said, referring to the developers.

The innovation should be particularly pleasing to fans of shooter and strategy games, who previously could only aim and navigate their units across the battlefield with a controller. So far, there are only a limited number of Xbox games that take advantage of the feature. However, this could change as the offering of the Xbox cloud gaming service expands.

New ways to improve latency

In addition, Microsoft wants to offer its developers new ways to significantly reduce latency in its streamed content. Up to 72 milliseconds should be saved, which should be a massive difference, especially in games that require a fast reaction speed.

However, we have to live with a few limitations: The new Direct Capture technology supports a maximum resolution of 1440p, while we have to completely do without dynamic resolutions or HDR. You can find an overview of all improvements from the sixth minute in the YouTube video presented above. We have also known for a few weeks that Microsoft is also working on an in-house device for Xbox cloud gaming.