The Xbox One will soon support keyboards and mice. Gamers will even be able to use Razer keyboards that light up with visual cues.
The news came out with the leak of promotional material for a Microsoft-Razer tie-up, but it’s now been confirmed the support will be for all manufacturers. It should work with any USB-connected keyboard or mouse, including those with wireless dongles. However it won’t work with those that use custom drivers or rely on Bluetooth connections.
It’ll be up to game developers if and how they balance gameplay with different input devices, though one slide notes that it’s “highly suggested that usage of mouse/keyboard be used as part of the matchmaking rules.”
Local multiplayer will have some restrictions as although Xbox consoles can support multiple gamepads, they’ll only be able to support one keyboard and/or one mouse each.
The Razer tie-up includes support for developers to access the Chroma function, meaning individual keys can flash different colors. One suggested use is for indicating the combo for an ability that has come off cooldown – in other words an in-game item or action that becomes temporarily unavailable after each use to make it a more tactical weapon.