Apple has added support for the popular Xbox One and PlayStation controllers to its TV OS, as a part of its ongoing bid to break into the home gaming space.
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the move at the company’s WWDC 2019 conference on Monday. The move means the new version of TV OS will support both controllers. This will let users navigate the Apple TV’s menus and play games using them.
This will be a huge boon for gaming on Apple TV. The company’s existing remote was a little squished and made playing anything but basic games laborious.
The move is part of a larger update to TV OS. Apple also rolled out new multi-user support. The feature works the same way it does on competing services, such as Netflix.
It will let people set up multiple user accounts on Apple TV OS products, each profile will have its own set of recommendations tailored to them.
“Now everyone in the home gets their own what’s next list,” explained Cook.
The news is part of a wider move by Apple to expand its gaming portfolio. Apple Arcade was unveiled alongside the company’s Apple TV Plus at a seperate event in March.
Apple Arcade is a gaming subscription service that will feature over 100 new ‘exclusive’ games. Numerous big name developers, including Sega, Konami, LEGO and Platinum Games are working on titles for the platform.
Apple isn’t the only tech giant working to expand its gaming portfolio. Google unveiled its own Stadia game streaming service earlier this year. Google Stadia will let you stream triple A games over the cloud at 60fps in resolutions up to 4K, according to Google. The platform also supports the Xbox controller.
Microsoft is working on a similar cloud streaming service to Google Stadia codenamed xCloud. An early demo showed the service streaming Forza over Microsoft’s Azure cloud.
Related: Google Stadia vs Microsoft xCloud
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.