How To Play Xbox On Macbook Pro

When it comes to controllers, the Xbox One controller is regarded as one of the best ones out there. With the textured grip that has curves that slip into your palms comfortably, clicky durable buttons, and a sophisticated vibration system, who doesn’t want to enhance their gaming experience with the Xbox One controller? After all, sometimes you tend to prefer a nice controller for gaming rather than the traditional keyboard and mouse. The Xbox One is tempting too, with its sleek, streamlined design, custom button mapping and up to twice the wireless range. But what if you want to use the Xbox One controller for gaming on a Mac, and do not know how to connect it to your Mac?

How To Play Xbox On Macbook Pro With Hdmi
Xbox On Mac

For a Mac gamer who wants to use a controller as good as the Xbox One Controller to play games, it can be quite confusing as to how would one connect the controller to their Mac. But don’t worry! Outlined below is an easy explanation to use your Xbox One Controller on a Mac Computer. Start reading!

In order to get a Xbox One display on your Mac, you'll have to do more than just plug some cables together. You can't connect the Xbox HDMI cable to the computer, as the computer can't be used as an external display for another device (an exception would be Target Display Mode for Mac-to-Mac display). So I tested it with an Xbox 360 controller plugged into my MacBook running Windows 10 (I didn’t want to have to install a 3rd party driver for the Xbox controller to work on macOS at this time), and it worked! So I tested it all remotely, and it was everything I was hoping to get out of remote streaming my Xbox.

Contents

1 Steps to Connect your Xbox One Controller to Mac

Steps to Connect your Xbox One Controller to Mac

Xbox One is a wireless controller, true, but instead of Bluetooth, it implements Microsoft’s own proprietary wireless connectivity system. Because of this, it is not possible to use your Xbox One controller on the Mac wirelessly, by Bluetooth or the wireless adapter (MacOS does not support functionality for it yet).

However, you can use Xbox controller on Mac OS with the help of a micro-USB cable. Along with that, you will also require third-party drivers and configuration. The steps are easy, so follow them and let’s get started!

1. Installing the Third-Party Drivers

Open your Web Browser
Follow the link given below for the 360 Controller Driver:

Download the latest release of 360Controller that is available on the GitHub link. As of this article, the latest release is 360 Controller 0.16.10.
Before you begin the installation, save your files or other ongoing tasks or work as your Mac Computer will be restarted as part of the installation process of Xbox 360 Controller Driver.
The .dmg file 360Controllerinstall_*.dmg will be present in the downloads folder. Double click to open it, and open the pkg file.

Click on continue. Then click continue to Agree to the License Agreement present in front of you (Go through it if you want). Then click install.
You will be prompted to restart your Computer to continue installing the software, as mentioned before. Click on Continue Installation.

Click on Restart. Your Mac will be restarted.
After restarting, open System Preferences. You will now find Xbox 360 Controllers among the icons at the bottom. Click to open it.
It will display ‘No devices Found’ if your controller is not connected.

The next step will be connecting your controller.

2. Connecting the Controller

Plug in the Xbox One controller in the Mac. For the latest MacBook/MacBook Pro, use the USB-C to USB-A
A System Extension Blocked warning might pop up. Click OK.
In System Preferences, go to Security and Privacy. Open the General tab, and click on the lock in the lower left. Enter your password to Unlock.

Click Allow.

3. Testing the Connection

You can test if your controller is functioning properly with the Mac in the Controllers Test
When your controller is connected and you press buttons on it, the image on the controller will respond. Test the buttons and check if they show up on the Preference pane. After checking all the buttons, you can be sure that the Xbox One controller is now functioning properly with your Mac.

How to play xbox 360 on macbook pro hdmi

4. Time to Put the Controller to Use

Your controller is Connected! Run your favorite Mac Games and start playing with the Xbox One Controller!

Configuring Xbox Controller on your Macbook

After your xbox 360 or xbox one controller has been connected, you can optionally set some changes according to your wish.

On the front page, you can invert the X or Y axis of the controller, for both the left and the right stick. For example, in-game, if you press the joystick upwards the camera will move downwards. This is preferable to some Users.
In the Binding tab, you can also link each control to a custom or default function, as per your desire. (Warning: this custom button mapping might prove to be buggy in the current version).

Under the Advanced tab, the controller’s sticks can be calibrated in order to fix the dead zones.
If for any reason you wish to uninstall the driver from your Mac, there is an uninstall option present in the Advanced tab.

Final Take!

I hope your Xbox One controller was able to connect to the Mac successfully. If you require added troubleshooting help, you can refer to the ReadMe for 360Controller or visit Tattiebogle, who is the forerunner of the array of Xbox + Mac Drivers that are accessible.