Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced "Project Leonardo," an accessibility controller kit for PlayStation 5 that aims to make gaming more accessible for players with disabilities.
That's what I've been waiting for. I'm not disabled, but it makes me glad they finally got around to making a controller for those who are physically impaired.
I feel exactly the same. Although this isn't for me, I've always found it quite disappointing (and as a PlayStation gamer, almost embarrassing) that Sony has never released an accessibility controller in the same vein as Microsoft's excellent Xbox accessibility controller.
In fairness, Sony's games have been leading the charge on accessibility for many years now, where MS offerings like Halo have left much to be desired, so it's swings and roundabouts.
I'm all for innovation, especially in the controller space, but how does this help with accessibility?
Yes, folks with disabilities should feel empowered to game, rather than feel left out of the best hobby, but how does a circular controller that doesn't have enough slots to house all of the possible PS5 controller inputs, coupled with a free standing arcade joystick, help someone who has a physical disability?
It looks harder to hold, harder to use, you'll be missing at least 4 inputs, and you still need to have 2 working arms and hands. If you wanted a controller that could be manipulated by feet, this might be the worst option. I've seen that they recommend getting 2 of these things to use as a single controller, thereby regaining all PS5 inputs, but that still means you need 2 fully dextrous hands.
A better device might utilize refined motion controls to help folks with manual disabilities, rather than just change the location of the buttons to a more unintuitive configuration.
Good job Sony 👏🏼
That's what I've been waiting for. I'm not disabled, but it makes me glad they finally got around to making a controller for those who are physically impaired.
Sony and Xbox, both hve great accessibility options... Nintendo lags behind
Yesss I'm buying this for rhythm games