As confirmed by DICE, Battlefield 2042 will not support keyboard and mouse setups on console when it launches this fall. This news comes via a recent blog post that covered a “commitment to positive play” and its revised and expansive community charter. As far as DICE is concerned, console KBM is listed under the studio’s focus on “fair play,” because of potential effects on cross-play and console lobbies, the feature has been set aside – at least for now.
“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.”
This news comes following confirmation that Battlefield 2032 cross-play is already segregated between console generations. In short, players on PS4 and Xbox One will play within their own pool while those on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC will play in a completely different pool. PS5 and Xbox players will be able to opt-out of matching with PC players, but by adding KBM support for these consoles, it could make things a lot more complicated on the development end, including the need to run input-based matchmaking based on what inputs a player is using. Then again, the issue could simply be the natural balance issue between KBM and analogue stick play, the latter of which comes at an inherent disadvantage.
