The latest EA release in the Battlefield franchise is due for release on November 19th. And, as before, it’s available on PC, Xbox and PlayStation, albeit now on both generations of the latter – PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
Battlefield has not traditionally supported keyboard and mouse use on consoles, unlike many other FPS games. Now that the game is cross-play too, so console owners can join the same battlefield as those on PC, it would the right thing to do to introduce it now.
However, it appears – at first, at least – that this isn’t the case.
What does EA/DICE say?
In a recent post, EA stated the following…
We’ve heard your questions about mouse and keyboard support for consoles. We can confirm that we won’t be supporting this on consoles at the launch of Battlefield 2042, but we are still investigating the various options about making that available, and how it may impact cross-play. If that ever changes, you’ll hear it from us first.
Battlefield’s Commitment to Positive Play
So, if you’re playing this on console, you’re limited to using a controller.
What’s the issue with this?
For those playing more competitively this would appear unfair for console owners, as it gives PC owners an extra edge. Moreover, part of the advantage of console gaming is knowing that everybody is using the same hardware, which changes when keyboard and mouse is allowed.
For the casual gamer, who may reject cross-play in preference to sticking with fellow console gamers, adding the ability to do this may, in itself, seem unfair.
Is this likely to change?
In an interview in 2013, DICE said the following about adding keyboard and mouse support on consoles in Battlefield 4…
We have mouse and keyboard support for the PC obviously, but I can’t speak now specifically for next gen consoles. But if it makes sense in the Battlefield universe, for a Battlefield game, we’ll consider it.
Unscaled Warfare – Speaking Battlefield 4 with Multiplayer Producer, Aleksander Grøndal
It never happened and this sounds as vague as the recent post about Battlefield 2042. It could happen, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. As with many things these days it may all come down to customer pressure.
What can I do to change this?
There is a petition in progress (with over 7,500 signatures at the time of writing), although it seems to concentrate on asking for this on Next-Gen consoles (Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S).
It puts forward arguments for why and how support should be added and I’d recommend reading those first to ensure you agree that these are the best proposals in your mind, before signing.
READ NEXT: When did the PS4 come out?
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