Xbox will no longer support an array of third-party gaming accessories, but it’ll still support cheating tools much to the frustration of fans.
The ban applies to “unauthorised” USB devices, ironic because it’s notoriously difficult, and sometimes expensive, to get any third-party accessories approved by Microsoft.
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The ban even applies to fair accessories like flight sticks, wheels for racing games, or joystick/fighting pads for games like Tekken or Street Fighter.
However, in a surprising, and annoying, turn of events, Xbox will continue to support unfair accessories, specifically XIMs.
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If you’re unfamiliar with what an XIM is, it’s basically a device for first-person-shooters that allows you to connect a keyboard and mouse to the console, and assign commands to it as if it were a normal controller.
This essentially gives you the precision of aiming and shooting with a mouse without having to play on a PC and is often treated as an unsportsmanlike tactic for the advantage it gives over console players using a standard control stick to aim. It can make online matches in competitive shooters like Call Of Duty or Rainbow Six Siege incredibly annoying, with many players saying it’s basically cheating to use one.
Unfortunately Microsoft clearly doesn’t see it this way, as XIMs will escape the hardware ban in a move everyone has disliked. This is despite the company's promise to "protect users," during online matches.
In short, going forward you’ll only be able to optimise your gameplay with more immersive or useful control methods if the hardware is supplied by Microsoft itself or one of its partners/approved vendors.
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It’s sad to see, especially since so many of these accessories did a splendid job of making certain games feel more immersive, or provide an easier way of controlling them, like the fighting game community who use fighting pads for online tournaments.
Hopefully, if there’s enough outcry from fans, Xbox will backpedal and work towards banning XIMs, it’d only be fair.