Terminal app for macos. I honestly had zero use for a XBox 360 Controller on my Mac, since I’m a keyboard/mouse gamer but I was toying with another article () and was looking for a Game Controller for the Amazon Fire TV. Looking around I noticed that the should work with the Amazon Fire TV and with MacOS X. Since I do play the occasional game on my Mac (yes: that is possible!) with Steam, I figured why not give it a try.

The controller, with receiver, isn’t all that expensive. So in this article: How to connect and use an Xbox 360 Controller on MacOS X.

About the hardware  • The USB receiver can handle up to 4 XBox 360 controllers. • Any XBox 360 controller will work. • The USB receiver works fine even when connected to a USB hub. • The software used will also work with a wired controller. • The USB cable of the Wireless Play and Charge kit is just a charger cable!

A USB receiver is still needed! Note that this is not the only Game Controller option out there for your Mac.

Other Joysticks/Game Controllers, even the ones from a PlayStation or Wii will work with your Mac as well. Some wired, some wireless (proprietary or Bluetooth). We’re just focussing on the XBox 360 controller in this article. XBox One Controller and Alternative Drivers For those who have an XBox One controller: good news. Well, partially anyway. There are good drivers for the XBox One Controller, but not for operating it wireless. The XBox One Controller needs to remain connected with an USB cable.

I have created a USB driver which allows you to use wired XBox 360 Controllers via USB, and wireless XBox 360 Controllers via the Microsoft Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows, on your OSX machine, including support for the Apple Force Feedback library. Check to make sure your internet is working on the Mac you're trying to install on. Pause any other downloads you may have active. If you've started a download and it's stuck, delete the download file by dragging it to Trash.

The advantage would be that your rechargeable battery pack remains charged (obviously not you regular AA batteries!). Drivers, which work with the XBox 360 controller as well, can be found for free on Github:. There is an alternative driver:, little less of a nice GUI and a little less frequent maintained though. Free Driver MacOS X does not natively come with drivers for the XBox 360 controller, which makes sense, it’s not their responsibility to provide hardware drivers for 3rd party hardware manufacturers, especially when they choose to swerve away from standards Unfortunately, Microsoft, doesn’t feel the need to supply drivers for Mac users for their hardware, which is unfortunate and leaves the user with the mess to solve by themselves. So we require a driver created by another party. And there is such a think in this case. Colin Munro, at, released a driver as early as 2006, which appears not to have been since 2012.