- Gaming hardware company Razer announced the first official keyboard and mouse for the Xbox One console, called the Razer Turret.
- Only 16 games are officially set to work with the Turret as of Wednesday, and it’ll cost a whopping $250.
- Pre-orders are open now, with shipping estimated for March 31, 2019.
- Allowing keyboard and mouse support on a game console where players primarily use a regular gamepad controller is a source of contention.
Gaming hardware and accessory company Razer announced the “Turret” on Wednesday, the first official keyboard and mouse designed specifically for the Xbox One console.
For some who prefer the good old-fashioned keyboard and mouse over console gamepad controllers for playing games, the news may seem like cause for celebration. It means you can finally use your preferred gaming control method on the couch with a powerful console that delivers better performance than an equivalently priced PC.
For others, Microsoft is making a controversial move to allow keyboard and mouse support on its games console.
There’s a whole debate over the speed and accuracy advantages of using a keyboard/mouse over a gamepad. Pit a keyboard/mouse gamer against a gamepad gamer in a match, and it’s likely the keyboard/mouse gamer will win. Some say that gamers who choose to use keyboards and mice on a console have an unfair advantage on a gaming platform where most players use controllers.
With that said, one of the games that will support Razer's Turret is the massively popular "Fortnite," a third-person-shooter game where players on any platform, including Xbox One, PlayStation 4, mobile, Nintendo Switch, PC, and even Macs, can play together in the same online match. So far, there hasn't been any massive upheavals regarding a PC player's advantage with a keyboard and mouse over another player on console, or even on mobile, where the controls are arguably the most limited or difficult to use.
The Turret sports a $250 price tag, which is wildly expensive when Microsoft's Xbox One controller goes for $50. Even Microsoft's premium Elite Xbox One controller is less expensive at $150.
The Razer Turret is available for pre-order now from the Microsoft Store, and it's estimated to start shipping March 31, 2019.
For now, you can check out the $250 Razer Turret and all it details below:
The Razer Turret is designed to be used on your lap while sitting on a couch, just like you'd do with a normal gamepad controller.
A retractable solid mouse pad is housed within the keyboard itself to give gamers a flat surface for the mouse.
The keyboard even has a dedicated Xbox button like the Xbox controllers have for pulling up the Xbox One dashboard.
The Turret keyboard and mouse combination will connect wirelessly to Xbox One consoles via a dongle. It can also be used on PCs.
As with any respectable gaming peripheral, the Razer Turret has colorful lighting for aesthetics.
The keyboard will have between 11 and 43 hours of battery life depending on how much of the extra lighting effects are used.
The mouse will have between 30 and 50 hours of battery life, also depending on lighting effects.
The Razer Turret is modeled after Razer's PC gaming peripherals.
The keyboard features mechanical key switches that are often preferred by PC gamers compared to standard "membrane" key switches. It also has a wrist-rest, which is pretty much a necessity for using a keyboard on a couch. The wrist-rest essentially acts like the desk where a keyboard would normally lie.
The mouse is based on Razer's popular Mamba Wireless gaming mouse for PC.
Only 16 games are compatible with Razer's Turret keyboard and mouse, which makes the Turret's $250 price tag a hard pill to swallow.
The list of compatible games is likely to grow over time, but there's no guarantee the game you want to play with a keyboard and mouse will ever be supported.
Those games include:
- Fortnite
- Minecraft
- Warframe
- X-Morph: Defense
- Warhammer Vermintide 2
- Bomber Crew
- Children of Morta
- DayZ
- Deep Rock Galactic
- Minion Masters
- Moonlighter
- Strange Brigade
- Vigor
- Warface
- Wargroove
- War Thunder