Yesterday, Jeff Kaplan stirred a bit of controversy in the gaming community. The Overwatch director spoke out the Battlenet forum board about how he is against the use of mouse and keyboard on console, at least when it comes to Overwatch. Here's his direct quote from the forum...
The Overwatch team objects to the use of mouse and keyboard on console. We have contacted both first-party console manufacturers and expressed our concern about the use of mouse and keyboard and input conversion devices.
We have lobbied and will continue to lobby for first-party console manufacturers to either:
Disallow mouse and keyboard and input conversion devices
OR
Openly and easily support mouse and keyboard for ALL players
I encourage you to reach out to the hardware manufacturers and express your concerns (but please do so in a productive and respectful way).
The whole conversation came from a debate as old as time: Do PC players have a distinct advantage over console players because of their access to mouse and keyboard? We'll revisit that topic in a bit, but let's first check out the statement Xbox boss Phil Spencer made in regards to the comment...
@LosDreamss Clearly in some cases M&K is an advantage. I'm a fan of giving the tools to studios and they'll do what's best for their games.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) February 7, 2017
While Gamespot points out Spencer has long said (even prior to Xbox One launch) that he would love for their console to have mouse and keyboard support his opinion is kind of moot in some ways. That said, there are methods and third party outlets that exist for those who wish to play console games using a mouse and keyboard (especially on PS4). Typically this doesn't work for games, but a third party software called XIM allows players on PS4 to play with a mouse and keyboard, which whether or not console gamers will admit it, gives a distinct advantage over a controller. Considering his statements, Kaplan is aware the issue exists among top players but is essentially saying responsibility falls on the Console makers to fix it.
Personally, I think it's stupid to be using mouse and keyboard on a console, to begin with. What's the end game there? Hoping you get noticed to join a professional team and then sucking it up on either PC where the playing field is leveled, or on console with practically zero experience on a controller when you're in front of an audience. I guess I agree with Kaplan to some regard, but honestly, I think mouse and keyboard (at least in a competitive sense) should stay on PC.
