Blizzard Wants To Ban Mouse And Keyboard Use On Consoles For Overwatch Players

Bad news for console players of Blizzard’s hit MMO shooting game Overwatch. The company is now moving to ban the use of mouse and keyboard peripherals on the platform. The decision was made in order to preserve the game’s balance, which can be ruined thanks to the advantage that the combo would have over players who are only using hand-held controllers.

Overwatch is a cross-platform video game title, which means that it is both on consoles and the PC. For those who only have the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One, they can choose to supplement their gaming experience with a keyboard and a mouse. However, according to a recent post by Jeff Kaplan at the Battle.net forum, Blizzard is against this.

“The Overwatch team objects to the use of mouse and keyboard on console,” Kaplan’s post reads. “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.”

It is worth noting that both the PS4 and the Xbox One don’t offer mouse and keyboard peripherals at the outset, Polygon reports. This forces the owners to find third-party companies to buy the items as well as converters that are needed in order to use them. With this being the case, perhaps the only thing that Sony and Microsoft could do is disable the feature entirely, which would affect other games.

As for whether or not the difference between controllers and mouse & keyboard setups is really worth going through all this trouble, the answer is yes. Although it does vary depending on circumstances, FPS games invariably perform better with the latter.