mouse/keyboard for 360/ps3: c'mon, please?

[FieryTrainwreck]

Would anyone else burn down a hospital for mouse/keyboard support on 360 and PS3?

I can imagine a litany of reasons why they'd never do such a thing, but isn't it kind of a bummer? These platforms have full-on operating systems, browsers, etc. Wouldn't it be roughly a million times easier to navigate everything with mouse/keyboard?

And what about the the crazy amount of first person shooting? Plus you'd see whole genres migrating from PC to consoles, like strategy games and MMOs. You'd think driving the final nail in the coffin of PC gaming, and subsequently swallowing up that market, would be reason enough to go ahead with this, right?

Any chance the next generation of console breaks down and includes mouse/keyboard support?

 

[Krion_Vark]

The Xbox does have keyboard support or have you never seen those tiny cellphone size keyboards to attach to the bottom of a controller.

On a note where I am not being a complete dick:
No I do not think they should include a keyboard and mouse support because quite frankly I am not playing on a computer for a reason. I don't think it would be easier to navigate through the 360 dashboard with a mouse seeing as how IT WAS MADE for a controller and is pretty damn easy to navigate as is. If you have a problem with a console not having keyboard and mouse support just don't use it. The operating systems that are created for the systems are made around the fact that they are consoles and 99% of the people using them are going to be using a controller so trying to make it keyboard and mouse capable is IMO a complete waste of time and resources.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

They should include mouse and keyboard support for RTS games. That is all.

And a keyboards can already be used with both consoles. Just not for gaming.

 

[ThePurpleStuff]

Krion pretty much said what I was going to say, LOL. I use an old USB keyboard on my PS3 and I use the controller for browsing the internet on it, though I rarely do that. I got a PC already so I use that instead, better internet support. I hardly use it either when the PC is taken. It's basically useless for me on the console I use for games with online support.

 

[Vincenzo DeLuca]

The way my console is set up, i wouldn't be able to make use of a mouse and keyboard so sadly i couldn't see the point of it. I also feel like the controller is part of the 'console experience' and feels markedly different to playing on the pc, but then that's just me and i'm slightly weird like that.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I thought the PS3 did have keyboard and mouse peripherals. *shrug*

 

[Infinatex]

I play on console because I like to be able to lay back, relax and play all my games with a controller. I know it an age old battle between Keyboard/Mouse vs Controller, but it really just comes down to what you've used most. I play on a console when I don't want to use a keyboard and mouse and I use my PC when I do. I've been playing FPS on consoles for years so my skill with a controller is equal to someone who has always played their shooters on PC, so I don't see it as a disadvantage.

Also a Keyboard/Mouse in the living room on the couch doesn't really work as well as it does on a PC with a desk.

 

[Radioactive Bob]

I've always hated playing anything on computer, actually. I just can't get used to pressing tiny keys instead of pulling triggers and pressing face buttons for actions.
Like Krion said, console gamers generally play console games for a reason. My reason is because i prefer the tighter controls (please don't tell me "a mouse is more accurate" because i personally have never believed that).
But not to be ignorant, i do know that many many people love using mouse/keyboard, so if the games themselves could work with both, i wouldn't see a problem with diversity. But as it stands, i know the xbox works with keyboard. Not sure about mouse though.

 

[jamesworkshop]

Xbox controllers plug perfectly well into my computers USB 2.0 ports and that hasn't killed the xbox market, GlovePie scripts allow me to replace the mouse with a Wii remote and yet the Wii still sells like hotcakes.
PC is blazing ahead with its abilty to support new revenue streams and distribution models, look how much Activision gets annoyed by having to fight against console manufactures to sell their products.


Activision, one of the leading cross platform publishers, wishes to move away from the "walled gardens" set by the likes of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

Bobby Kotick, Activision CEO, told the Financial Times that it believes that the majority of Xbox Live subscribers pay Microsoft for the Xbox 360 online service just to play Modern Warfare ? a subscription fee that Activision doesn't get any share of.

Kotick's solution to this is simply to turn to the PC, where it can set its own model for pricing ? not unlike what Blizzard has done with World of Warcraft and Battle.net. He added that Activision would "very aggressively" support the likes of HP and Dell in any effort of making an easy 'plug-and-play' PC that would hook up directly to the TV.


http://www.tomshardware.com/news/consoles-tv-modern-warfare-mw2,10804.html

http://news.bigdownload.com/2010/06/23/activision-blizzard-ceo-70-percent-of-profits-come-from-non-con/

A dead PC platform is bad for the industry because without ATi and Nvidia nobody will be around to make the consoles GPU's

 

[commasplice]

I don't think the lack of mouse and keyboard support is why certain people play MMOs as opposed to console games. Likewise, I don't think a mouse and keyboard are inherently better for FPS's than a controller is. Personally, I prefer the controller. I don't really see any problem with making more games keyboard friendly, but I don't really see any need for it, either.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Kotick isn't just greedy - he's also a moron.

Consoles are "walled gardens" because they sell new hardware at an enormous loss. Microsoft and Sony need to have their tendrils in everything, from online play to royalties, just to eventually recoup all the losses from hardware sales. The idea that Dell or HP will be able to create a similar system for a comparable price, without demanding similar shares in ongoing revenue, is ludicrous.

Kotick thinks he deserves a bigger piece of the pie because he has no fucking clue what he's talking about. He's not in hardware, so he doesn't understand the challenges these companies face in delivering a powerful and affordable product to market. If it were so goddamn easy, why wouldn't Dell or HP have already done this? Does Bobby think he's smarter than all those people too?

Anyways, Activision rants aside, I just want to play strategy games and MMOs on my consoles. They have USB ports. They do, surprisingly (to me), have some native support for these devices. Why not just flip whatever switch is preventing me from treating these machines like the stripped down PCs they really are? I really can't enjoy a strategy or MMO game on PS3 or 360, and there's no real good reason why that has to be the case.

I've been playing FPS on consoles for years so my skill with a controller is equal to someone who has always played their shooters on PC, so I don't see it as a disadvantage.

Read this all the time. One of the reasons I think they don't allow mouse/keyboard for consoles is the fact that some people prefer to play their first person shooters with a controller - and these people would be forced to switch to mouse/keyboard if consoles allowed such devices. Because people using mouse/keyboard would absolutely stomp people using controllers. You can't mix the two types because everyone who says "I'm just as good with a controller" would be proven completely wrong and forced to switch.

Also, the resurgent PC game market seems to be riding flash-based crap, Facebook crap, and the sales of 5-10 year old games on Steam. Pointing out the greater profitability of the PC industry is kind of a strange cop-out for anyone who isn't working in that industry. What do I care if a company can make more money developing some shitty little $2-3 game if I don't own stock in said company? Will the industry as a whole trend towards the more profitable models? Of course - and that's a bad thing if you're someone who wants to play good games. As opposed to, you know, win some argument on the internet.

 

[mad825]

Because people using mouse/keyboard would absolutely stomp people using controllers.

ermmm...no.

it maybe rather difficult adapting to holding the controller/using analogue stick and knowing by heart where the buttons are straight away however the 102 keys (on average without combinations) on a keyboard will not stump the user with less than 20 buttons on a controller

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Because people using mouse/keyboard would absolutely stomp people using controllers.

ermmm...no.

it maybe rather difficult adapting to holding the controller/using analogue stick and knowing by heart where the buttons are straight away however the 102 keys (on average without combinations) on a keyboard will not stump the user with less than 20 buttons on a controller

If they ever allow mouse/keyboard users and controller users to play in the same tournament setting, I will bet a tidy sum of money on the mouse/keyboard crowd. Easy money.

I guarantee you they would have to create two FPS divisions on Live/PSN if they ever allowed mouse/keyboard on 360/PS3.

I can flip a 180 on a mouse much more quickly than with an analog stick. If I monkey with the sensitivity to the point where this is no longer the case, that analog stick has lost a tremendous degree of accuracy. If I play for years, I might begin to approach the combined range of motion and accuracy of a mouse - but I'd be that much better if I'd spent that time on the mouse.

I don't follow your reasoning at all. Controllers work just fine and I wouldn't stop playing FPS games if they required them. But I'm not going to pretend they're more effective than a mouse/keyboard combo. More comfortable or convenient, yes. Raw performance-wise? Sorry, not close.