Apple will soon improve the gaming experience on the Apple TV set-top box significantly. The company announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference 2019 today that an upcoming firmware update for the set-top box will bring support for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controllers to the Apple TV.
It’s no surprise that Apple has waited all this time to bring controller support to its set-top box. This would have always made sense regardless of when Apple had done it. The company is doing it now as its new Apple Arcade game subscription service is due to arrive soon. This service will offer more than 100 new and exclusive curated games which will be playable across Mac, iPad, iPhone, and the Apple TV.
Apple has made a slate of other improvements to tvOS, which is the operating system that powers the company’s set-top box. Some of the native apps have received meaningful improvements as well.
It’s a big deal that Apple TV will now support controllers from the two most popular gaming platforms. This will make it much easier for players to use the existing controllers that they have to play casual games on the set-top box. It certainly beats the company trying to sell a proprietary gaming controller to Apple Arcade subscribers.