We get it, we do: Wireless is often a better option than wired when it comes to gaming controllers. What you lose in having a perpetual power connection, you gain in convenience—and you don’t hack off your roommates by having a huge cable dragging across the living room whenever you’re in front of the TV.
If you’re a PC gamer, you haven’t really had any options to go completely wireless with Microsoft’s Xbox One. At least, you can’t hang out on your bed and use an Xbox One controller to wirelessly control the content you’re streaming from your Xbox One to your PC monitor—a specific setup, we know, but one that Microsoft is definitely hoping console gamers can take advantage of in the company’s new Windows 10 operating system.
According to multiple reports, Microsoft is finally releasing a wireless USB dongle that you can plug into your laptop or desktop for wireless gaming with an Xbox One controller. Said dongle officially launches on October 20, and it’ll cost you $25. That feels a wee expensive given that the controller itself costs $60, putting the total package for a PC user looking for some wireless console gaming at $85 (assuming you’re buying a separate controller for your office or bedroom, unless you really want to walk one controller between your living room and wherever it is you keep your PC).
So far, Microsoft’s specifications seem to indicate that the dongle only works with Windows 10. It will also only work with Xbox One controllers. So, if you’re still holding on to your older Xbox 360 controller in the hopes that you could get some wireless gaming going on your new OS, you’re out of luck. We’ll be curious to see if anyone can get the dongle to work on earlier editions of Windows, but we suspect Microsoft isn’t very keen on supporting a more limited use case on an older OS.
