absolutezilchHey Big Zam!
A couple of weeks ago on the Co-optional Podcast, JesseCox mentioned people who are starting to use a mouse and keyboard to play Destiny, which as most people remotely in touch with the gaming world would unfortunately know, is a console FPS. He is doing this by using a Mouse and Keyboard Adapter for consoles called a XIM4.
I am of the opinion that even though I enjoy playing First Person Shooters on a console because of the multiplayer aspect of it, I understand why a controller is just inherently less well-suited for a game like that because FPS controls feel better using a mouse. I did look this up myself before JesseCox mentioned it because I wondered why console companies didn't make first-party mouse and keyboard devices themselves.
This would probably cost less to the customer than a third-party device adapter like the XIM4 and generate some potential revenue for customers. When I looked it up on Google, I remember a forum where someone posed such a question and a lot of people replied with, "It's because consoles are usually kept away from a workstation and using a keyboard or a mouse on a couch would not be very beneficial". The counter-argument to that obviously is that in a competitive multiplayer FPS that is a console exclusive, the people who control it using a mouse would potentially seem to have a competitive advantage over those that don't have access to such peripherals even though they would like to have them and they probably do not have money to buy an expensive adapter or don't know about it.
Why do you think companies like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo don't produce their own first party keyboard and mice or keyboard and mice adapters? It seems like a very obvious idea but do you think it somehow enforces the idea that console manufacturers are completely ditching the market strategy of the one advantage that consoles have over PCs of local system link gaming with friends in real-time without the hassle of slow internet connectivity is shattered with the introduction of computer peripherals to console devices? I mean if that were the case, console manufacturers would still encourage gaming companies to release their games with split-screen functionality enabled for console versions of games to foster a 'local play on the same console' spirit but games seem to be getting away from that too.
TL;DR - there's an adapter for mice and keyboard gaming on consoles now.
- -2 Lame
5 Replies
deadshadow foking furry
i think if they made a first party people wouldn't buy the first party controllers and people might be put off by the idea
Parks Ass To Ass
Nintendo and Sony both had Mice peripherals on older consoles. I don't think they sold well at all, which could be apart of it.
Microsoft is already in the PC Market, so I don't think manufacturing KB M for X1 would do them any good. They could just make an adaptor like they did with the 360 controller (making it PC compatible).
absolutezilch Hey Big Zam!
@Parks: Oh I actually didn't know they already had previous iterations of a similar product; thanks for letting me know. It's strange that it didn't sell that well to me but I suppose everything you'd want to play on PC would eventually come out on PC :p
Man, Bayo 2 arrived in the mail when I got home from college. I'm a little ecstatic haha. xD
B0r1ng
@Parks:How old? If we're talking pre-PS2/Xbox it might be understandable why a keyboard and mouse feature might have flopped.
But consoles feel a lot more like PCs now. Current-gen consoles have menus, web browsers, features that go beyond just gaming. Seeing as the Xbox One's user interface is close to the one for Windows 8, it might be easier for some people to navigate through it and actually be able to search with a real keyboard. This might be more inviting if there were first-party support so that the use of such a peripheral doesn't feel clunky.
Sorry for the ramble, but basically all I'm saying is that from here on out putting out a keyboard and mouse for a console might be both feasible and successful.
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