How to connect a wired Xbox 360 controller to your Mac!
- jul
- 13
Need to ready yourself for the incoming VR gaming wave? Connect a wired game controller to your Mac!
Gaming on a Mac is not what Apple is historically known for. However, with Apple delving into the fledgling virtual and augmented reality space, some traditional game interfaces and not so traditional interfaces (think HTC wands or Valve's knuckle controllers) now need to be supported on macOS to reap the VR/AR benefits to their fullest.
To ready you for some amazing VR pilot games such as Eve: Valkyrie that utilize a traditional game Xbox game controller, we're here to show you how to connect a wired Xbox 360 controller to your Mac!
How to download and install the drivers
We're assuming that you already own a wired Xbox controller, but if you're needing to buy, one you can look on amazon.com to get one.
- Launch Safari.
- Navigate to https://github.com/360/Controller/360Controller/releases.
Download the latest release of the 360Controller driver. As of this writing, the latest release is 0.16.5.
- Go to your Downloads folder in Finder.
- Double-click the 360Controllerinstall_*.dmg file.
Double-click the Install360Controller.pkg that pops up in Finder.
- Click Continue.
Again, click Continue.
- Select to Agree the license agreement.
- Click Install.
Agree to allow a restart of the computer by clicking Continue Installation.
- Click Restart.
You can optionally have the downloaded file Moved to Trash.
- Upon restarting the computer start System Preferences from the dock or the menu.
- Click on Xbox 360 Controllers.
How to connect your Xbox 360 controller
Once you've installed the drivers, you'll now logically see that there are No devices found, since we have yet to physically connect the game controller to the Mac.
- Plug in your controller to your Mac. If you have a current model MacBook or MacBook Pro, you'll need a USB-C to USB-A adapter.
- Click OK when the System Extension Blocked warning message pops up.
- Go into System Preferences via the dock or menu.
Click Security & Privacy.
- Under the General tab click the Lock at the bottom left.
Enter your password and click Unlock.
- Click Allow.
Your Xbox 360 wired controller should now be connected!
Final thoughts
I am super stoked about developers climbing aboard the VR/AR hype train. As a mere consumer of VR, I can only hope for more and more creative minds to get on board. If you're a VR/AR developer, or even better yet, a macOS VR/AR developer, what other ways can Apple help promote virtual reality on their platform? Let us know in the comments!