How to Use an Xbox 360 Controller With Your Mac

How to Use an Xbox 360 Controller With Your Mac

Recently, we showed you how you can use a PlayStation 3 controller to play games on your Mac. But what if you prefer using the Xbox 360 instead? Not to worry – you can use an Xbox 360 controller with your Mac as well! The process isn’t quite as simple as setting up the PlayStation controller, however…

Xbox 360 Control Mac

Instructables user Fungus Amungus has posted a tutorial at Instructables detailing two separate methods for using an Xbox 360 controller with your Mac, both wirelessly and through USB.

I picked up Borderlands 2 for OS X in the recent Steam sale because friends of mine would NOT shut up about the game. So I fired it up only to find out that I needed to use a keyboard (lots of keys) + a mouse (carpal tunnel = no) to play. That sucks. I was hoping that I could use a borrowed Xbox 360 controller to play through, but Aspyr doesn’t support that. Grr.

So after some research I found a way to use both a wireless Xbox 360 controller as well as a wired third-party Xbox 360 controller. This worked for Borderlands 2 and other games I’ve tried so far. The cost for this is $5 for the wired controller and $20 for the wireless. Here are the two setups that worked for me.

It’s not terribly complicated to get this working. One method is to purchase a  wireless gaming receiver for $15 on Amazon, and using a pair of apps called TattieBoggle and JoyStick Mapper to make the magic happen. He also shares how to make things work using a third-party Xbox 360 controller.

Check out the full details over at Instructables. Enjoy – and happy gaming!

For more helpful tips, check out our full collection of tutorials by visiting our How-To category!