Allow multiple controllers to be used and recognized on console

As a Roblox developer, it is currently not possible to create a user experience where multiple users can play on the same console together. This is because Roblox does not recognize input from controllers other than the first controller on Xbox.

I’m attempting to make a game in which people can play together on the same console. A game for you and your friends to play while at a party or a game for you and your family to play together on the same console. Roblox is so flexible and reaches so many different users and platforms, but is unable to do the thing that a lot of people value the most about game consoles, being able to play with your friends locally.

On PC, I can easily index multiple controllers using the Enums and it works:

UIS.InputBegan:Connect(function(input, gameProcessed)
	if input.UserInputType == Enum.UserInputType.Gamepad1 then
		print("Controller 1")
	elseif input.UserInputType == Enum.UserInputType.Gamepad2 then
		print("Controller 2")
	end
end)

On mobile, this appears to work as well.

But on a console, UIS doesn’t seem to detect input from the second controller. I found this out by asking multiple users to join a game and test this for me. All of which reported that only one controllers input was detected through UIS. (Tested on Xbox One)

The addition of this feature would open so many more doors in terms of potential games that could be created on the platform and is a feature that should be natively apart of the platform on Xbox.

70 Likes

PlayStation support has been released recently, so I’ve been emphasizing console support even more in my upcoming games. I wanted to implement local multiplayer in my upcoming projects, allowing multiple people to play with their own controller, but it feels awkward releasing compatibility for only PC and mobile players. Would be nice if this was implemented in the near future.

13 Likes

I’m going to comment on this one too, I’ve made an extensive local 1v1 mode for my fighting game, which works great on PC, being able to do the same on consoles would be a really important factor for this to be playable at local in-person events

2 Likes