The keyboard and mouse have become necessity to PC gaming, so much so that PC gamers who make the switch to consoles are often left scrambling for adapters and third party devices that allow them to keep their beloved keyboard and mouse setup.

And now, Blue Orb, Inc. announces a new piece of software called Switchblade, which brings fully configured game controller interface to the PC, ultimately giving gamers the ability to use the Xbox 360 controller to play Blizzards World of Warcraft.

Unless there is an underground group of WoW gamers who have been lurking in the shadows, secretly writing letters to Microsoft asking for 360 controller support, this move at best will be targeting the console gamer who may be interested in WoW if they could make the transition to the PC gaming world seamlessly.

“We all know that World of Warcraft is popular, but a lot of gamers are just hooked on the console experience – playing games with a controller,” said Aaron Levin, Blue Orb’s Vice President of Business Development. “With Switchblade, they can relax on the couch with a gamepad instead of hunching over a keyboard and mouse. We are delivering the console experience.”

WoW will be the first game to be supported by the Switchblade software, applying a preconfigured key binding map of the most commonly used WoW controls to the Xbox 360 controller buttons. The software itself will be offered for free, and available for download at www.xfire.com, thanks to a partnership between Blue Orb, Inc and Xfire.

“Partnering with Blue Orb enables us to offer a superior playing experience for Xfire users,” said Adam Boyden, Xfire’s General Manager. “We invite gamers to download the free SwitchBlade software from Xfire and experience a new way to play World of Warcraft.”

Blue Orb, Inc. states that they will have more support for additional PC games as well as a wider array of supported controllers in the near future.

Source: Switchbladegaming.com

Tags: Blizzard, Blue-Orb-Inc., Switchblade, World-of-Warcraft, WOW, Xfire

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3 Comments » LordCancer on October 19, 2007 2:29 am whats with the spam?^^^^ I like controller support, having both controller and keyboard/mouse support is great gives gamers the option. I’d like to see better controller support implemented into more rpgs, games like oblivion where you can spend hundred of hours playing can strain your hands pretty quick. Chad Lakkis on October 19, 2007 3:16 am LC, The way I understand it, it is the doing of a “ping back”. We post a story, a spam site finds it, posts a snipit from it linking back to us for the full story and then our site somehow posts that to the comment area. Chad- Daymon on December 26, 2007 12:02 pm I’m so angry I bought a controller and then they say that Oblivion is not compatible with Switchblade. It was highly irritating. RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL Comment Now Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks. Notify me of followup comments Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.