You Can Now Use Office on Xbox Series X|S with Mouse and Keyboard

Microsoft Edge will now allow users to use Microsoft Office on Xbox Series X|S consoles with mouse and keyboard.

[thesoftware730]

Gotta love options!

MS keep putting out updates, gotta love it.

[Bruc3L3r0y]

An option that practically nobody will ever use.

[Neonridr]

why not? more options is a bad thing?

[1Victor]

Nice 🤷🏿
next

[Godmars290]

@Neonridr:
A non gaming option for a gaming/entertainment system?

[Sitdown]

@Godmars290
Technically it can fall under the definition of entertainment.

[nirwanda]

@godmars it's better than removing options like a browser in ps5.
Just out of interest how many parents (with no gaming interests) do you think would buy one over a ps5 if the salesman told them he can do his homework on this one.

[dcbronco]

No. Cause nobody in college plays games and writes papers. The desperate need to hate makes an idiot out of people.

[blacktiger]

unnecessary option is not a bad thing but it's dumb and overload of the console. Eventually it's going to slow down like a PC

[Fist4achin]

Awesome. I get to pound work spreadsheets while on my Xbox!

Gaming is supposed to be one of my getaways!

[alb1899]

Well, I know my kid will

[LordoftheCritics]

This is a good move.

[Magog]

Xbox has come full circle.

[darthv72]

you could say Xbox did a 360... get it?

[Fishy Fingers]

About time. Always blown my mind they didnt support Windows/office (to some extent) on their consoles. Given the option it can act as cheap ass PC (albeit with limited use) that plays games.

They should really add a "windows lite/rt" solution. Windows 11 would be a nice place to start.

[matthook]

beauty!

[SegaSaturn669]

Managing spreadsheets is going to be a major component of the new halo game.

[Atticus_finch]

Office running at 4k 60 with Atmos.

[Fntastic]

Seems an odd thing to add, anyone into this stuff will likely have a decent PC for doing it. Same as video editing etc.. so basically any decent gaming rig.

[Fishy Fingers]

Dude 99.99% of people using (especially cloud based, point being they lack local resources) word/excel etc are not running "decent gaming rigs" (nor are video editors)

Hell. Most people in the Steam surveys arent running "decent gaming rigs" lol

[Fishy Fingers]

You dont use MS office for video editing bro.... and "tied to the power of the computer"? Umm this is cloud based via your browser, it's not local (its not using your machine) it could be a raspberry pi.

You new to PCs dude?

[elfintman]

Definitely interesting..

[TheColbertinator]

Fantastic. Very beneficial when it comes to MMOs.

[Atticus_finch]

Suck it Sony fanboys!

[SullysCigar]

Thank you, Microsoft, for giving us what we all hoped for all these years, but dared not ask for. How did they know? This just proves they're at the cutting edge of gaming.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

With a mouse and keyboard? 😮 Wow that must be a new thing now.

[sourOG]

Why would you though? What’s a scenario where it would be more convenient to work on a console?

[Fishy Fingers]

Same scenario it would be easier to get the bus than drive your car. You dont have a car?

[sourOG]

It wouldn’t be easier to get the bus because I have a car lol. If you work on office you probably have a computer. Why would you use the console?

[LordoftheCritics]

Basically tab out, go to edge look at guide/builds etc etc (basically what I do on my pc, multitask on grindier games, farming gear resources etc) This is similar but for ppl who down own a gaming pc.
Make notes for whatever, tab back in.

Depends on how you look at it. If it performs well then yes the limit is your mind.

If the performance sucks, then ppl will never use it.

They need to add proper multitasking, like youtube in the background while playing.

[sourOG]

That makes sense for pc but when I think of office I think of work and concentration lol. Using office to take game notes seems like overkill lol. If I need to look something up for a game I usually have a phone or an iPad beside me. Booting up edge would be my last thought. I’m really trying to think of a good reason for this but I can’t.

[LordoftheCritics]

EDIT/

[LordoftheCritics]

''That makes sense for pc but when I think of office I think of work and concentration lol. Using office to take game notes seems like overkill lol.''

Its not to just look up. You can do a lot more from edge to office to one note etc. Literally save entire sections in a few clicks. You could technically make it into a work computer, ignore what it looks like. It is a computer in some sense.

Also to open office docs in xbox. My guilds have so many builds in excel that wouldnt be very usable on my iphone. Luckily I game on pc so its easy but I can see this being a good thing for non pc owners. It opens up play styles.

Also if email works well then even better. Edit and apply on the browser itself.
I can see a lot of uses if I even try to get a little creative. But again this is considering you dont have a gaming pc/dont want to switch between your regular laptop and back to console.

Also online saves in office/one note are universally tied to your email. So you can access everything on your pc and phone as well due to crossave so its not a waste of time to use it on a console and can actually minimize multiple device usage. Again it needs to perform smoothly and switch between edge, apps, game etc quickly. This also great for lapboard/couch wireless kb/m users.

For someone who only owns the x console and wants to use it like a mini computer, this could be great.
Work, movies, games etc Almost a computer in a minimal sense.

I used to be so broke at one point of time that I had a psp 3000 do a lot of things. Hacked it into a game console.mp3 players/ video player etc etc This was for almost 2 yrs

[sourOG]

Some good points. I wasn’t thinking about guilds and such. If it were seamless i guess it could be useful. I guess I’m just thinking in a work flow sense. It still seems weird to me.

[badz149]

let's just give credit where it's due. this is a free update and a nice feature that maybe nobody asked for for a console but why the hell not, right? it's an optional feature that now allows you to go straight to opening office files (if you or somebody else really need you to, pronto) on huge ass screen while you pause your game without leaving your console. I sometimes gotta do it but I just use my phone instead but a feature is a feature.

[sourOG]

I’m not hating at all, I was just wondering why someone would use that. I couldn’t think of anything so I asked.

[sourOG]

I thought of a good scenario lol. When would it be more convenient working on a console? When you are working on a console lol. This would be a really good tool for game developers and testers. That’s probably the primary cause. They beefed their own communications and it became a feature.

[Junghova]

Lol

[ChasterMies]

Headline is a bit of click bait . All access to Office is via Edge web browser, not native apps.

[neomahi]

Its a gaming console, dont try and turn it into a PC, or you may as well own a PC and then a gaming console (PS5), thats the WHOLE POINT!

[LordoftheCritics]

Options never hurt.

Just wouldn't want them to lose focus on the gaming aspect. But again options.

[matt139]

Pointless but pretty cool nonetheless.

[Hofstaderman]

But why?

[Metabeard]

Been requesting this feature since the original xbox came out! Took em long enough! Now we just need MS paint!

[sizeofyou]

And the Paperclip.
Don't forget the Paperclip. 🙃

Options are good. But I'll never use it...

[Ryzza5]

The point is if you have a limited budget and need a way to do some schoolwork and play games and your options are to get a slow 2nd hand desktop and an old console or get a shiny new console that can do both, it's a no-brainer. It doesn't affect me as I game and work on PC, but it reminds me that I occasionally use the web browser built into Steam when gaming if I need to look something up without Alt+Tabbing.

[Thomaticus]

I hope that there are achievements added as well. Achievement 150G - First Pivot Table created!

[Godmars290]

What's funny is you've got the Xbox camp praising/show excitement for this, yet VR is no big deal on "their" system.

[BrainSyphoned]

Rather stream on a Surface than spreadsheet on a Xbox.

[VTKC]

Whats the point in this option? Hold on while I do abit of my homework between loading screens? Having access to Steam account would be more useful.

[alb1899]

Wow!

[jznrpg]

Well now it’s useful

[MrBeatdown]

What a time to be alive!