Microsoft’s Xbox head Phil Spencer recently said via Twitter that keyboard and mouse support for Xbox One “aren’t far away,” and while it is not yet clear how far that support will go, there are more than a few reasons the console maker may want to rethink that decision, or at least restrict their use in games.

For some games, the difference between playing with a controller and playing with a keyboard and mouse is negligible, and it really comes down to personal preference for which is better. But that is not the case with every game, especially one of the main attractions on consoles: first-person shooters.

While a controller might be more comfortable to use on a couch, a mouse is better for shooters in almost every way, especially in regards to speed and accuracy. Many console shooters make up for this by using auto-aim to make players’ shots artificially more accurate, but there is still a hard cap on reaction time with a controller due to the limitations of the joysticks.

If Xbox does enable mouse support for games, developers would almost certainly have to divide servers between controller and mouse users, and splitting a user base is never a good idea. Mouse support in games would also completely undermine the new $149.99 Xbox Elite Wireless Controller, which markets itself as “a performance-class controller to meet the needs of today’s competitive gamers.” It could give players an edge in some genres like fighting games, but for a shooter it would still fall short of a $20 mouse.

Of course, even with Spencer’s vague statement regarding keyboard and mouse support, it would be surprising if Xbox actually introduced mouse controls to console games, and it seems more likely that Microsoft would enable mouse support for non-gaming tasks like media streaming or chat.

In that regard, giving users the ability to control their console with a mouse could provide a major improvement in usability, and it would take the Xbox one step closer in the living room PC direction. It would also improve the Xbox One’s cross-platform capabilities with the upcoming release of Windows 10, which promises to fully integrate with Xbox Live and allow gamers to stream games on their PC.

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