Key Takeaways
- Xbox Series X gamers can remap controls at the system level, bypassing games without this feature.
- You can use console settings to edit buttons and save profiles, making gameplay more accessible.
- Remapping controls can enhance gameplay experiences across various genres on the Series X.
The gaming industry is making many amazing strides toward accessibility. We’re seeing far more options, especially on PS5, for games to offer accommodation for things like colorblindness, lack of motor control, and even hearing loss. But there’s one feature that, somehow, a few games come out with that’s the most basic way to make it playable by more people: button remapping. Sadly, there are more than a handful of Xbox Series X games that force you to stick with whatever controls the developer decides upon.
Being able to change your controls is something you should automatically expect in games, which makes it all the more disappointing when you find one that doesn’t allow it. It could be as minor an annoyance as pressing ‘jump’ when you intended to punch, or even be so bad that you aren’t even able to play competently at all. But just because an individual game may not have any button remapping options doesn’t mean you’re out of luck if you still want to play it. Here’s a handy trick I use to get around games that don’t let me remap my controls.
This guide will apply to the Series S as well as X.
How to remap your controls on Xbox Series X
Change your buttons on the system level
Even when a game doesn’t let you change your button layout, there’s a way you can still force it to change by editing it on the system level.
Even when a game doesn’t let you change your button layout, there is a way you can still force it by editing it on the system level. The Series X will let you remap your controls however you want on the console itself, which will then apply to any game you play. Not only is this great for getting around games without this option, but it can also save you a ton of time.
If you know that you always want two buttons swapped, for example, then you may as well edit it this way rather than change it for every game you boot up. Here’s how you can completely remap your buttons on the Xbox Series X:
- From the dashboard, open the Settings menu by pressing the gear icon in the top-right corner.
- Select Devices & connections from the list of options.
- Choose Controllers & headsets.
- Hit Configure on the controller you are using.
- Select the pen icon to edit the buttons.
- Press and hold the button you want to map and then choose the button you want to swap it with.
You can also make and save multiple profiles for different button layouts. For example, if you have a layout you like when playing FPS games and another for RPGs or some other genre, you can save them all and quickly swap between them instead of having to go back into the system to alter them each and every time.
