Windows PC gamers who have been waiting for official Xbox One controller drivers can finally have that access. Microsoft has now released official 32-bit and 64-bit x86 Windows drivers for the controller.
Microsoft has been promising this support for some time. Indeed, a third party programmer was clearly getting impatient with the wait and in March he released a software hack that enabled the controller to work on Windows.
However, these newly released drivers come with the full support of Microsoft. According to Xbox Live's director of programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb:
The new PC drivers will enable the Xbox One controller to be used with any game that featured gamepad support for the Xbox 360 controller. Simply download the drivers, connect your Xbox One controller to your computer through a micro USB cable and you'll be gaming in no time.
This driver release is actually something that Microsoft is offering a bit early to hardcore PC gamers. The same software will be included in a future automatic update to Windows.
Keep in mind these Xbox One controller drivers are for the x86 versions of Windows that run on Intel and AMD processors. The drivers do not support Windows RT, which means that owners of Microsoft's Surface RT and Surface 2 are currently out of luck. There's no word when, or if, Microsoft will offer similar drivers for Windows RT. There's also no word if there will be any future support for the controller's wireless features for Windows.
Source: 32-bit and 64-bit drivers via Major Nelson
