PC gamers who are salivating over the prospect of using a new Xbox One controller to work with their computers will have to wait until next year for compatibility. Microsoft has confirmed that it will add the functionality, but that it will take a fair amount of work to do so.

Speaking to CVG, a Microsoft spokesperson said the new controller runs on a totally different architecture to the original Xbox 360 gamepad, so needs new software to ensure it works with existing games.

"The Xbox One controller, although it looks similar in many ways, shares no underlying technology with the current Xbox 360 controller. New wireless protocol, combined with the ability to work in 'wired' mode, and the addition of features like Impulse triggers, means that new software has to be written and optimised for the PC," he said.

"There is also some work that we need to do to make sure that existing PC games that support the Xbox 360 controller will work with the Xbox One controller. While it seems trivial, it's actually quite a bit of dedicated work for all that to be seamless for the user."

This essentially means that the controller will not work across devices from the launch of the next generation console.

"We know people want to use the Xbox One controller on their PC, and we do too - we expect to have the functionality available in 2014."