# ESC key not recognised by games

**URL:** <https://community.keyboard.io/t/esc-key-not-recognised-by-games/4417>\
**Category:** Programming\
**Created:** [December 6, 2020, 9:01am UTC](https://community.keyboard.io/t/esc-key-not-recognised-by-games/4417 "2020-12-06T09:01:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![soperhero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@soperhero](https://community.keyboard.io/u/soperhero)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 9:01am UTC](https://community.keyboard.io/t/esc-key-not-recognised-by-games/4417/1 "2020-12-06T09:01:14Z")

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I have an Atreus, with the Esc key mapped using Chrysalis exactly as it was when it came out of the box. I’m on a Windows machine using a UK Keyboard layout.

The Esc key seems to work fine in Windows, but isn’t recognised at all in games (I have several that do the same thing - GTA V, Epistory, Fortnite). I have no idea what could be different, since I didn’t think that Esc was a key that was different between regional layouts or anything! The key just does nothing at all - as though it weren’t bound to anything.

I haven’t found any other keys that have this problem, and in most games I’m able to use P to pause and bring up the menu, but for a few of them I’m having to plug in another keyboard just to be able to press Esc!

Any ideas?

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**Author:** ![Rom1deTroyes](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/community.keyboard.io/rom1detroyes/32/3352_2.png) [@Rom1deTroyes](https://community.keyboard.io/u/Rom1deTroyes)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 3:26pm UTC](https://community.keyboard.io/t/esc-key-not-recognised-by-games/4417/2 "2020-12-06T15:26:06Z")

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Have you tried to add some Esc key elsewhere on the keyboard ? (Dumb idea, but who knows ?)

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**Author:** ![soperhero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@soperhero](https://community.keyboard.io/u/soperhero)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 7:05pm UTC](https://community.keyboard.io/t/esc-key-not-recognised-by-games/4417/3 "2020-12-06T19:05:00Z")

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(Not a dumb idea at all, grateful for any ideas!)

Yeah, I actually started with it mapped on a different layer, and ended up moving it back to the original layer to try and rule that out. 🙁