Shift At Midnight controls
On PC — Steam or the Microsoft Store — Shift At Midnight has no controller support at all. Not partial, not community-only: the developer's own Steam listing declares every controller category false. If you bought it on PC, you are playing with a keyboard and mouse whether or not you own a gamepad. The Xbox Series X|S version is the opposite case — that build is controller-only by definition.
Last verified 10 September 2026 · game version: 29 July 2026 patch
Shift At Midnight's Steam store listing carries a controller-support data block, and every field in it reads false: full Xbox controller support, partial Xbox controller support, PS4, PS4 Bluetooth, PS5, PS5 Bluetooth, and Steam Input API support. The developer has completed Valve's controller-support declaration — this is not a blank field waiting to be filled in, it is an explicit "no" across the board. On PC, that means keyboard and mouse only.
Why this feels wrong for an Xbox game
Shift At Midnight launched day one on Xbox Game Pass and is an Xbox Play Anywhere title, which makes the lack of PC controller support genuinely counterintuitive. Xbox Play Anywhere links one purchase across Xbox Series X|S and Windows, and the natural assumption is that a game built for a console controller carries that support into its PC build. It does not. The Xbox Series X|S version is a native controller experience; the Windows build shares the save data and the Play Anywhere entitlement, but not the input method.
This is also why the question keeps coming up in the game's own Steam discussions, where a thread titled "Is controller support planned?" sits alongside a separate "Please add gamepad support!" post. Neither has a developer reply confirming a change, so treat controller support as absent until Kwalee or Bun Muen says otherwise — not as something quietly being worked on.
What actually works: keyboard and mouse
The verified interaction model is mouse-driven. Serving a customer means reading an ID at a terminal, cross-checking details in the N.E.T. database, and making a judgement call — all screen-and-cursor tasks that do not map cleanly onto a gamepad's face buttons and sticks, which is the most plausible reason a solo developer skipped controller support rather than shipping a broken one.
One binding is confirmed from in-game material this wiki has already verified: interacting with the wind-up music box that triggers the Marionette encounter is done by holding E to rewind it — see the Jack-in-the-Box page. Beyond that specific, confirmed key, we have not found an official, complete keybind list published by the developer, and we are not going to invent one. Standard first-person conventions (WASD movement, mouse-look, mouse-click to interact) are a safe general assumption for a game in this genre, but treat anything more specific than the E-to-rewind binding as unconfirmed until we can source it.
We found no evidence of an in-game key-rebinding menu in any source we checked, official or otherwise. If remapping matters to you, the safer route on PC is a system-level or Steam-level remap (Steam's own controller/keyboard configurator, or Windows key-remapping software) rather than assuming the game exposes one itself. We have not tested this ourselves, so we're not calling it confirmed either way — just the more realistic option.
This wiki's own system requirements page separately notes that SteamDB's app-info panel records a generic “Gamepad supported” flag for this game, distinct from the field-by-field controller-support breakdown described above, and says outright that no official note on which inputs are mapped could be found. We have not been able to reconcile that flag with the all-false declaration this page is built on, so treat the SteamDB tag as an open question rather than something this page resolves.
Steam Deck and controller-only handhelds
Because the PC build has no declared controller support, a Steam Deck run inherits that gap directly. The system requirements page covers the Deck compatibility rating in detail, but the short version connects straight back to this page: Valve's own Deck compatibility notes for this game flag that the default controller configuration is not fully functional and that some interactions need the touchscreen or a community control layout — which lines up exactly with a game that was never built for a gamepad in the first place.
Can you force a controller to work anyway?
People do get gamepads working on PC shooters with no native support through Steam's generic gamepad-to-keyboard/mouse translation (via a Steam Input desktop configuration) or third-party tools like a community controller layout. We have not verified a working configuration for Shift At Midnight specifically, and the game's own bSteamInputAPISupport: false flag means the developer has not built in any awareness of Steam Input — a workaround, if one exists, is entirely a community effort layered on top, not something the game recognises. If you find one that works reliably, the most useful place to report it is the game's own Steam discussions, not a third-party trainer site.
What the most recent patch changed
Unconfirmed: we have not been able to source patch content newer than the 29 July 2026 update against this wiki's own patch-notes page, which was still listing that as the newest public announcement as of its last check. If a later update has shipped, we have not verified its contents well enough to describe new key bindings here, so we are not guessing at one. If this is the first page of the wiki you've landed on, the reading order guide sequences everything else from here.
Quick answers
Does Shift At Midnight have full controller support?
No, not on PC. The Steam listing declares no Xbox, PlayStation, or generic Steam Input controller support. The Xbox Series X|S version is controller-only by definition, but that is a separate build from the PC version.
Can I use a controller on the Steam version?
Not officially. Nothing in the game recognises a gamepad on its own. Community workarounds using Steam's generic input translation may exist, but we have not verified one, and the developer has not declared any Steam Input support.
Is it playable on Steam Deck without a controller working properly?
Valve rates it Playable, not Verified, and the flagged issue is exactly this — the default controller configuration is not fully functional, so some screens need the touchscreen or a community layout. Full detail on system requirements.