Apple plans to assign game controller buttons to your Mac’s keyboard

As part of its ongoing mission to improve the operation of iPad and iPhone apps on M1 Macs, Apple has added game controller emulation to macOS Big Sur’s current 11.3 beta. Basically, Apple is trying to make its M1 Macs more like gaming PCs.

According to MacRumors, running an iPad or iPhone app on an M1 Mac adds a new Game Control option when you open Preferences from the app. When enabled, the new option assigns the buttons on your controller to the keyboard and mouse, so you can play games with those peripherals instead of the controller.

The controller’s left thumbstick is assigned to the WASD keys and the right thumbstick to the mouse. (Logical.) The A key becomes the space bar, the X key becomes the Q key, the Y key becomes the E key, and the B key becomes the F key. Finally, L1 is bound to Tab, L2 to Shift, R1 to R and R2 to the mouse.

But instead of having dedicated key connections for specific in-game actions, it seems like somethingever the A or L2 buttons will be mapped to specific keys on a Mac keyboard without a way to rebind them. This can vary from game to game, depending on how the developers assigned in-game actions to the controller buttons. From a PC gaming perspective, this could make playing certain games via keyboard and mouse on the Mac awkward and cumbersome – and confusing from one game to another.

Let’s say the Tab key makes your character crouch in one game, but opens your inventory in another. And you may be able to jump with the A button in some games, but you use it to retrieve items in other games. There are certain important connections that have become a tradition across multiple genres in PC gaming (such as stempo bar to jump and ctrl to crouch) which Apple doesn’t take into account. Stardew ValleyFor example, has its own keyboard controls for macOS, so why not let someone use those instead of assigning the controller buttons from the iOS version of the game to different keys?

It also seems like things can get a bit confusing if you assign a PlayStation controller to the keyboard and mouse instead of an Xbox controller. Since it is in the same position on the controller as the Xbox X button, would the Q button be the PlayStation X button or the PlayStation Square button? Seems kind of tedious (and confusing) to have to remember which keyboard keys are for which game controller button and which keys do what in each game. Apple would be better off letting users bind their own keys to the games they play, rather than forcing them to use a specific layout for each game.

M1 Macs support PS and Xbox controllers, not to mention the Big Sur beta adds PS5 and Xbox One X controller support. So why Apple chooses to approach PC game controllers this way instead of letting the app developers assign the best keyboard shortcuts for their games isn’t clear. Now it isLike holding on to a controller to play iPad or iPhone games on the M1 is the best way to go here.