Fortnite has apparently banned XIM in either a stealth update or the recent patch as many users of the software are reporting “blocked” messages when trying to play Fortnite on the Xbox One.
XIM provides input adapters allowing players to use mouse and keyboards on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360 and PS3. The company and its adapters have been around for a while, but with crossplatform games on the rise, it has led a surge in popularity.
For those unaware blocking keyboard and mouse input isn’t the problem here, Microsoft is clearly encouraging support for them for the Xbox One. However what XIM and other third party tools do is bypass the console’s input detection, treating the Mouse and Keyboard as the standard controller. The biggest issue with this is Aim Assist, a feature without which you possibly can’t play FPS games properly with controllers. There’s also other mods allowing you to adjust settings giving players who use XIM distinct advantages over other players.
The problem with XIM on Fortnite is that even though the game has cross-platform multiplayer, people with XIM on consoles using Keyboard and Mice with Aim Assist have a distinct and honestly unfair advantage. You could also call this cheating.
Team XIM is aware of the issue and is looking into it, they were clearly not expecting this as they make the XIM Subreddit Private earlier.
We are investigating reports about issues using XIM with Fortnite. We will share more information when we know more. Thank you for your patience.
— Team XIM (@TeamXIM) October 11, 2018
Microsoft has made APIs to detect these adaptors for a while now, Epic Games seem to be finally taking advantage of this. Sony as far as I’m aware doesn’t have any such precautions in hand for the PS4.
Developers have the choice to use APIs that detect and not allow these. It’s up to them, but the capability is there. https://t.co/jE97R6oj0c
— Mike Ybarra (@XboxQwik) February 18, 2018
Honestly this is really great news and should make the Fortnite experience much better across platforms, however players can still use the tool on the PS4, which as you’re probably already aware recently went crossplatform.
Thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments.
