I got the opportunity to ask a Blizzard rep about mouse and keyboard support on console!
@blizz_megan Any plans to support mouse and keyboard natively on console? If not, why? Any plans to support overwatch on MacOS? Any plans to support overwatch on the steam deck? Or bring overwatch onto the steam launcher?
blizz_megan: I don’t have any insight on plans to support M&K (not to say it doesn’t exist, I just have no insight into it) but will find out more info and let Zack know
Hulk is bro you whack confirmed
I told Zack to ask the developers…
Had to pester him a lot heh…
Zack seems to be against it…
If kb&m is supported those players should be put in pc lobbies with no aim assist
If you wanna play that way, play that way
You dont get to kb&m vs controllers
Yeah I pretty much agree with this…
For me it’s about accessibility and allowing consumers to use the hardware of choice as opposed to gaining some kind of advantage…
Nobody disagrees with that? OW2 should have input based matchmaking with mouse and keyboard support. Despite, ostensibly, being the same company its amazing how far behind Team 4 is compared to the CoD teams on this.
His response is baffling too. “What do we do if someone plugs in a mouse and keyboard mid match”. Oh, I dunno, maybe do like CoD and dont let them use the alternative input? If they get kicked from game thats their own fault similar to if their controller died mid round or something.
Yeah but you 100% know some people wanting kb&m want it just so they have an advantage over controller players
if they do I can only see it segregating the playerbase which they seem keen to avoid
KBM players should not have aim assist. The XIM problem won’t be solved by adding official KBM support. Because the whole issue is that the game is being tricked into giving a KBM player aim assist.
Theyre already doing that anyways with an adapter. Adding official support instead of gimped support will actually reduce the amount you see it.
I agree with increasing accessibility as much as possible, especially with macOS. It doesn’t have to be anything pretty, just able to work!
the issue is, many console controller players prefer to go against, either, competitively. which btw would assist with queue times even further. those console players who don’t prefer pc cross play, can simply disable such, once competitive console pc cross play is implemented by default. as far as AA, its not actually AA, its lack of wrist assist. and its the strength of AA that matters. OW AA is nearly non existent as many well know. so OW AA is a non factor thus non-concern. if anything, OW AA needs an FULL overhaul and strength increase for controller players who desire to compete against pc. for console kbam players, AA is an oxymoron.
i suppose for starters, but eventually it must be polished.
This was my response to him because I was getting kind of annoyed so I worded it quite strongly (he didn’t read this out on stream so I guess he didn’t see it heh)…
I think you have a very outdated view of how consoles should work. Nowadays they are practically PCs. There is no good reason not to support mouse and keyboard rather than simply an outdated mentality that people have to use specific hardware. It’s anticonsumer and it’s anti-accessibility.
I also brought it up to him that fortnite, paladins and modern warzone do KBM just fine…
His response was that fortnite isn’t a competitive game and paladins is very unpopular…
I don’t understand why he’s so against this…
Most ximmers would much rather play on PC servers with PC players.
Just completely ignores the steam deck question 
This guy is an idiot. He makes it sound like there’s some insurmountable problem. Talks down to users like they don’t realize some obvious flaw in the design, yet it’s so simple to solve the problems he says exist.
Like, "What if they unplug their controller and plug in a mouse + keyboard" - uhm, easy. Once youre in queue you can switch inputs. You either get Controller+Aim assist or M+K for the duration of the match and you can’t switch between them.
This isn’t rocket science.
Maybe just feature an opt-out for both parties. Casual non-comp is a good place to chill, but sometimes you want to sweat it up and gain some practice for comp. There isn’t much to practice when the full stack of: controllers + software + rigging, are smoothing out what amount of skill deltas you can impart into the lobby.
You never know where you stand. So why not let PC M+KB users opt-out of controller/xplay lobbies, and vice-versa.
I’m sure there are plenty of people who certainly use XIM solely because it gives them an advantage, but I strongly suspect there is a considerable overlap of people who use it solely because they dont want to use a controller, but still want to game on a console for all the other advantages they offer.
Youre my hero, thanks for that