Initially unveiled back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Sony commemorated Global Accessibility Awareness Day in mid-May by announcing a “first look” at the Access Controller for the PlayStation 5. The peripheral, the analogue to Microsoft’s Xbox Adaptive Controller, was described by Sony’s senior vice president of platform experience, Hideaki Nishino, in a blog post as “an all-new, highly-customizable accessibility controller kit designed to help many players with disabilities play games more easily, more comfortably, and for longer periods.” The company also noted the Access Controller was developed in collaboration with a variety of “accessibility experts.”
The Access Controller was known internally as “Project Leonardo.”
In July, Sony announced pre-orders and a ship date for the Access Controller. It’s priced at $89.99 and will start shipping on December 6.
As I reported earlier today, Sony shared a first look at the so-called “design journey” of the Access Controller, as well as announced the Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit. The Gaming Kit was built in collaboration with Logitech, and will ship in January 2024.
In an interview conducted last week via videoconference, senior technical program manager Alvin Daniel explained PlayStation has an ethos that “play has no limits.” He described the phrase as relatable not only to the imagination in building PlayStation games, but also to disability inclusion. Daniel said PlayStation Studios has done “doing cutting-edge work” in terms of “introducing new options for players with disabilities to be able to enjoy their game experiences.” He also cited the PS5 system software, which includes accessibility features such as a screen reader and large text. Moreover, Sony recently released an update which added new accessibility features like the ability to use two DualSense controller as a single entity, as well as haptics to the main UI.
According to Daniel, the main problem many disabled people encounter in using the standard controller is an inability to manipulate it out of the box. What the Access Controller does, he said, is help players express themselves in the game by “[bolstering] that kind of final element in the chain of the game console and controller input into the console.”
Sony began developing on the Access Controller in 2018 and 2019 with what Daniel called a “blank sheet of paper.” The mandate was to figure out how to build an adaptive and accessible controller so as to make the PS5 more inclusive. Daniel said the team did its due diligence in researching existing solutions on the market, saying they also studied adjacent factors like census data, medical data, the prevalence of various conditions, and more. Of particular note was the “heroic lengths” Sony found disabled people going to in order to acclimate themselves to standard controllers. The team enlisted the assistance of the folks at AbleGamers, whose input Daniel said was “instrumental in helping us inform what challenges we want this controller in this space to solve.” All told, the R&D phase helped Sony cement three core principles for the Access Controller: (1) be able to use it without picking it up; (2) use physically swappable buttons; and (3) make it highly customizable with third-party switches or joysticks. The end result, Daniel said, is a product that isn’t a bespoke all-in-one solution. Instead, it’s extremely flexible.
“The team worked very hard to creatively introduce different elements that players could customize in tune to their needs,” Daniel said. “[This] helps if you have a disability which is dynamic in the sense it’s either progressing or regressing, so the control you start with on day one could be very different from the controller you ultimately need on day 100. [The Access Controller] can change with you should your needs change.”
Testing of the Access Controller has been met positively by gamers all over the world. Daniel told me the company had players in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan use the device, with the goal of having the “widest spectrum of players with different needs to see how they use the controller.” Even given the research and development, Daniel was forthright in his humility by saying Sony is fully cognizant of the fact there never will be an all-encompassing, “silver bullet controller” that makes everyone an amazing player. He said the company believes it has built the best controller it could, and does not claim the Access Controller to be representative of every possible disability out there.
Despite the caveats, Daniel expressed optimism towards the Access Controller’s potential impact, telling me he feels it will end up being “broadly impactful for the disabled gaming community.” Further, Daniel said the team believes the Access Controller not only benefits those who require accommodation today, but also act as a sort of Trojan horse in attracting new audiences who otherwise may have felt excluded from video games due to inaccessible controls. More broadly, Daniel thinks the advent of the Access Controller will prolong the conversation on accessible video games and push developers to make their content more inclusive of everyone. Finally, Daniel noted it’s not insignificant in terms of optics or symbolism that there exists a first-party adaptive controller that tightly integrates with the system; the idea, he said, is it shows people there are innovations in gaming—alternative input methods—that heighten the overall user experience for all people, of all abilities.
“We’ve been very surprised with the creativity that our players have come up with in terms of different configurations and different permutations that have surprised us, like use cases we did not anticipate,” Daniel said of the reception. “It’s super exciting.”
Daniel noted there are players who control the joystick with their cheek.
I had the opportunity to visit Sony Interactive Entertainment’s San Mateo campus late last week for a briefing on the Access Controller, as well as have hands-on time with it. The biggest impression I got from my experience was just how thoughtful Sony was in building the Access Controller; the customizability of the software and the hardware runs deep, particularly on the former side. Echoing Daniel’s sentiments, while it’s true the Access Controller is neither perfect nor all things to all people, Sony nonetheless has created something that is extremely willing to bend to one’s will and applicable to a variety of needs.
In a functional sense, what struck me the most was how much easier (and how much more enjoyable) using the Access Controller was while it sat on a table. I have two consoles at home currently, a PS4 Pro and a Mega Sg, both with standard, handheld controllers. I’ve been gaming for the last three decades, and my disabilities are such that I can use standard controllers pretty much friction-free. I can tap buttons and move D-pads and push trigger buttons pretty easily. That said, in my brief testing of the Access Controller, I find all of the button-pushing and the movements far nicer when I wasn’t holding the controller in my hands. The biggest problem for me historically is, because of my cerebral palsy, I have to hold objects tighter (so as not to lose my grip) which in turn causes faster cramping and more pain. It isn’t unbearable, but definitely something I need to be mindful of when playing. By contrast, playing Gran Turismo with the Access Controller eradicated the cramping entirely, allowing me to have more fun and concentrate on my terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad driving skills. (I truly am bad.)
Using the Access Controller was an unexpected revelation for someone who doesn’t necessarily require the accommodations it offers.
Also noteworthy about the Access Controller is its accessible packaging. Sony has made it such that opening up the box can be done in either direction through a large finger loop, as well as organizing everything inside the box to not be tidy and safe from jostling but also easy to find. Taken together, that accessibility of the Access Controller extends to the packaging is a thoughtful touch, both symbolically and pragmatically. The packaging should be a boon for many types of disabled people, including those with certain fine-motor and/or cognitive conditions.
Accessible packaging isn’t exactly standard operating procedure with any type of product, let alone a tech product, so to see Sony’s efforts here was another welcome discovery during my time attending the briefing.
One important point to make is the work Sony (and Microsoft) are doing with their respective gaming controllers is the sort of work that genuinely should garner more applause from the tech press. Of course people should view things journalistically by critiquing and asking questions, but it’s also important not to conflate objectivity with cynicism. Of course Sony wants people to buy a PS5 and the Access Controller—they’re a for-profit business, after all—but the sheer existence of adaptive controllers is an extraordinarily meaningful gesture in a world where most things are not built for the disability community. That’s why accessibility exists in the first place: to give disabled people access to things, like video games, we otherwise literally couldn’t enjoy like anyone else. Journalistic practice aside, that isn’t at all trivial.
However flawed the Access Controller may be in practice, Sony deserves the utmost kudos for the inclination. The inclination is the whole point.
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