Can you use USB keyboards and mice with Xbox One?

Support is there, but with limitations

Microsoft recently rolled out the first iteration of its support for mice in Xbox One games, although there are a ton of teething problems worth being aware of so far.

The number of games on offer with support for mouse and keyboard play is very small, with only two dozen or so titles supported so far. Here are all the games we know of so far that support mice and keyboards.

• Bomber Crew
• Deep Rock Galactic (Xbox Dynamic Lighting)
• Fortnite
• Metro Exodus
• Minecraft
• Paladins
• Sea of Thieves
• Sniper Elite V2 Remastered
• Strange Brigade (Xbox Dynamic Lighting)
• Surviving Mars
• The Sims 4
• They Are Billions
• Vermintide 2 (Xbox Dynamic Lighting)
• Warframe
• War Thunder
• X-Morph Defense (Xbox Dynamic Lighting)

The implementation of mouse and keyboard in certain games has been a bit hit and miss, too. In They Are Billions, for example, the cursor speed is way too fast, and this is despite the developers patching in tuning improvements. Other games seem to suffer from strange input lag as well. In the case of Sea of Thieves, it felt as though the Xbox version wasn't designed for players to be able to turn as quickly as you can with a mouse, producing odd stuttering. It works far better in other titles, such as Surviving Mars and Warframe, but some of the other issues like controller time outs remain.

Beyond the limited number of games, there are some limitations on how it functions. Many games have a function where they time out if they stop detecting a controller present. Unfortunately, this doesn't include mice and keyboards, so you'll have to keep your Xbox controller nearby and repeatedly tap the buttons every now and then to stop it from automatically turning off. The Xbox interface itself frustratingly doesn't support mouse and keyboards either, so to navigate, sign in, and so on, you'll still need to have your controller present and handy.

Most apps on Xbox in general don't seem to support mouse and keyboard either, which isn't a great experience when switching between activities. Keyboard support by itself can be useful simply for replying to messages and typing in games that have chat functions, even if you don't fancy using a mouse to play games.

Generally speaking, Xbox clearly wasn't designed with mouse and keyboard support in mind, but it's in its early days so far, and for some games, it's actually quite a fun option.