As The Verge’s John Porter noted, Sony’s long-awaited Access console for the PlayStation 5 officially went on sale today. The $90 peripheral aims to help make playing PS5 games more accessible for people with disabilities. Sony’s latest device is similar to Microsoft’s critically acclaimed adaptive controller for Xbox.
Hideaki Nishino, senior vice president of platform experiences at Sony, wrote a blog post about the Access Controller’s launch and “celebrating inclusivity.” Additionally, Sony posted a video on YouTube featuring some of the people from the disability community with whom the company has consulted in developing the product since starting work in 2018.
“Five years ago, we began our journey by engaging experts and organizations like AbleGamers, Stack-Up, and SpecialEffect, as well as PlayStation Studios, to help us craft a new console design that could deliver broad impact for the accessibility community,” Nishino wrote. In part. “Thanks to their contributions, and the benefit of 28 years [Sony Interactive Entertainment’s] Using our design experience and playtesting with dozens of participants across three continents, we’ve created a highly customizable accessibility controls suite that works “out of the box” to help gamers with disabilities play more comfortably and for longer periods.
Today’s launch is a finale of sorts for the Access console, thanks to five years of R&D put in by Sony and months of intermittent coverage for this column. Last October, I published an in-depth study into the aforementioned R&D for the access controller. My story included an interview with Senior Technical Program Director Alvin Daniel, as well as details about my short time with the Access Controller – I played Big tourism On a PS5 set up for our meeting — during a hands-on briefing at Sony’s campus in Foster City a few weeks ago. In short, the Access Controller exists as a solution for gamers who don’t have access to a standard DualSense controller. The Access Controller enables players to express themselves within games through “[bolstering] “This is kind of the last item in the series of introducing the game console and console controller to the console,” Daniel told me.
After the briefing, Sony sent me an Access controller (and a PS5 controller) before Thanksgiving for further testing. Instead of a traditional review, suffice it to say that the most striking part about using the access controller is literally located on the horizontal plane. Nishino points out in his blog post that the access controller is highly modular and can be easily customized to fit a person’s needs and tolerances; Sony has made the buttons and joystick interchangeable to build the perfect controller as if it were a Lego set. My vision and motor ability are such that I don’t necessarily need much in terms of configurability. What I found very useful about the access controller is that I can use the thing without holding it.
During decades of playing games on everything from the original Nintendo and Sega Genesis to the Dreamcast and the old PS4 Pro, using different systems meant I needed to hold the controller in my hands. It’s my thing Can Do it in the absolute sense, but it has never been the most comfortable. That’s because partial paralysis in my hands, caused by cerebral palsy, leaves me needing to grip objects similar to Darth Vader’s Force Choke — that is, with so much force that I was about to squeeze the life out of them. It is a moving object. In contrast, an access console is designed to be used on a table, a wheelchair tray, or even on a person’s lap if possible. This way, I can play games with more fluidity and dexterity because I don’t have to constantly readjust my grip to accommodate fatigue. As always with accessibility, it’s small details that make a big difference in shaping the overall user experience of using the PS5.
On a higher, amorphous level, the arrival of the Access console is a seminal moment for Sony and for the gaming industry. During our interview, Daniel told me that PlayStation’s marketing slogan of “gaming has no limits” has a double meaning. Not only does it speak to the power of the PS5 hardware itself, it also nods to the disability community, and with the accessibility console, breaks down barriers in gaming. That Sony (and Microsoft, for that matter) is investing heavily in making its consoles more accessible is no small feat; Accessibility of video games is as important as any other aspect of technology. (Lest anyone forget, Apple supports the Xbox Adaptive Controller in iOS/iPadOS/tvOS for services like Apple Arcade.)
Exhausted journalists might look at Sony’s ad and sarcastically say that Sony’s claim to celebrate inclusivity is just a marketing ploy to sell their products. However true it may be to some extent, what this insensitive view misses is the access control unit truly A means by which PS5 use can be more equitable and inclusive. None of this is to say that the access controller is above criticism and above reproach. The salient point should be that its mere existence has incredible meaning and should not be mocked under the guise of so-called objectivity.
As with using an iPhone, iPad, or MacBook, not everyone uses video games in the same way. That’s why coverage of accessibility in the tech press is so important. It’s there to enlighten use cases that extend beyond the usual scope of Geekbench scores, camera comparisons, and the like. The access console is no different.
If you have a disability and have a PlayStation 5, today is your day.
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The much-anticipated launch of the PlayStation 5 Access Controller has sent waves of excitement through the gaming community and tech journalism industry. With its cutting-edge technology and innovative features, gamers and enthusiasts alike are eagerly awaiting the release of this new controller. The PlayStation 5 Access Controller is set to revolutionize the gaming experience, making it a truly pivotal moment for both gamers and tech journalists.