Sony’s PS5 Accessibility Controller Is Essential And Long Overdue
Sony’s Project Leonardo could make it easier for many more players to try PS5 games.
The most important PlayStation news Sony shared at CES had nothing to do with PS VR2 or how many PS5 units it has sold. At long last, the company has revealed a fully customizable controller kit aimed at making it easier for folks with mobility issues to play its games.
For now, at least, the kit is called Project Leonardo. It’s designed “to help many players with disabilities play games more easily, more comfortably, and for longer periods,” Hideaki Nishino, senior vice president of platform experience at Sony Interactive Entertainment wrote in a blog post.
“It is built to address common challenges faced by many players with limited motor control, including difficulty holding a controller for long periods, accurately pressing small clusters of buttons or triggers, or positioning thumbs and fingers optimally on a standard controller.”
Players will be able to swap out the buttons and analog sticks to find a setup that suits them.
Players will be able to swap components in and out, including the stick caps and a range of different buttons. The aim, according to the blog post, is to help players “find a configuration that works for their strength, range of motion and particular physical needs.”
Players can map the buttons however they like. Multiple buttons can be mapped to the same input, and there’s the option to trigger any two inputs (such as L3 and R3) with a single button. These settings can be stored as control profiles. Players can have up to three control profiles and they can switch between them via their PS5’s settings.
Project Leonardo will work with many third-party accessories designed for accessible gaming, such as switches, buttons and analog sticks. These can be connected via four built-in 3.5mm ports and configured to the user’s liking.
Players can pair up to two Project Leonardo accessibility controllers and a DualSense and use them … [+]
One particularly notable feature is the ability to pair up to two Project Leonardo controllers and a DualSense controller together. This will enable “players to mix and match devices to fit their particular gameplay needs or to play collaboratively with others.” Not only will that help folks with mobility issues call in a friend, but kids who are having trouble with a game can ask an experienced player to assist with a tricky part of a game while still having some control over it themselves.
Project Leonardo is flat and can be placed on a table, wheelchair tray or lap, a bit like a fight stick. It can be mounted on tripods and AMPS mounts. The analog sticks can be placed as close together as the player likes, and they can orient the controller in a way that works best for them by setting the “north” orientation on the analog sticks.
One of the most important aspects of Project Leonardo is that Sony is working with accessibility experts and organizations such as AbleGamers, SpecialEffect and Stack Up to develop the device. It’s looking for more feedback from the community as it continues to work on Project Leonardo.
The company isn’t ready to release the controller just yet. It will reveal the final name, more details and launch timing at a later date. Hopefully, it can keep the price relatively low too — an expensive controller isn’t exactly an accessible one.
It’s long overdue for Sony to develop an official accessibility-centric controller for PS5. The company has made tremendous strides with accessibility options in games like The Last Of Us Part II (and the Part I remake), Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and God of War Ragnarok. But the DualSense controller still proved to be a hurdle for many.
SIE president and CEO Jim Ryan told Wired that the company has been working on Project Leonardo for years, “with the goal of making something that is truly unique and caters to a wide range of players with different physical needs.”
News of Project Leonardo comes nearly five years after Microsoft announced the Xbox Adaptive Controller, which similarly allows players to connect external accessories like buttons and analog sticks. Xbox and Windows also have an accessibility feature called Copilot that allow players to link two controllers and having them act as a single one, enabling two people to control the same character.
It might have taken Sony a few extra years to develop similar hardware and features of its own, but it’s heartening that the company has finally got to this point.
Players will be able to connect external devices to Project Leonardo via the controller’s 2.55mm aux … [+]
Accessibility Is Important For Everyone
Gaming is for everyone. Improving accessibility is vital to ensuring that anyone can play games if they want to. The work that accessibility experts are putting in now will benefit everyone in the long run.
They may not have to think too much about these issues now, but teens who want to keep playing games in their later years may someday be incredibly thankful for accessibility advancements. Able-bodied players will never know when they may suffer from vision or mobility loss, or any other issue that makes it more difficult to play games as freely as they do now.
That’s why it’s important that Sony is making an official accessibility controller kit. You may not personally need it now, but someday Project Leonardo and initiatives like it might be vital when you want to play your favorite games.
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