Took them a while but nice to see hardware coming to accompany the extensive software accessibility their studios have delivered.
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Sony announces Project Leonardo, an accessibility focused controller for PS5
- Thread starter --R
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This is a good start but theres still no excuse for not allowing people to use DS4s, and other controllers usable on ps4. There are no feature differences as you can turn adaptive triggers off on the dual sense. This is a bandaid to a problem they caused by needlessly limiting usable inputs and they are solving it by making those who struggle to use the dualsense buy a new first party controller on their closed standard.
This is great to see across the industry. I will say though, if they want to prove their commitment to accessibility they need to make the DualShock 4 compatible with PS5 games. There are tons of accessibility controllers that act as a DS4 for people with specific needs that many already own. Enabling people to use those input devices they already have is a win for everyone
Tbh, i cant wrap my head around how either this or the xbox accessibility controller work, but I am glad they exist lol.
Many custom accessible controllers made during the ps4 era use boards that Sony blocked on ps5
Yeah, that's where I am. I'm sure they did their research, and it'll be great, but it doesn't stand out immediately as such like other controllers do. It looks very Sony though so I guess it's got that going for it. Either way, good on them for finally coming out with a disability focused controller. It's been a long time coming.
Oh that's fucked. Glad they made this and hope it works well but that feels awful tone deaf.
Yeah, while I like seeing platform manufacturers creating their own accessible controllers, the best way of ensuring accessibility is to allow players to use more controllers. There's really no reason why DirectInput and XInput controllers shouldn't work on all platforms. Hell, even Steam Deck has shoddy controller compatibility.
Nintendo will make rapidly vibrating your hand obligatory in the next mario game instead
if Sakurai can play two characters at the same time while having tendonitis, you should also destroy your peasant arms
srsly they are the worst at this
B-but if they support PS4 controllers on the PS5 they won't use the completely optional features of the DualSense, they need to block them :((((((
The Great Bottom Line will always be the priority, sadly.
Yeah, this looks great for those who need a highly configurable solution, and it's real nice to see this be highly researched, but their PS4 controller policy left those who just need or already had a PS4 controller-based solution out of luck. It an obvious gap in their accessibility push they have ignored.
yeah it was an unfortunate casualty of the war on KBM/cheating in FPS games
Always awesome to see this kind of stuff from the big players. Seems well designed and thought out.
Your move Nintendo.
Your move Nintendo.
Using a different part of your body to move the stick and push buttons. It would be interesting to learn how they collaborated with disability advocates.
Another thing that should happen is the games themselves have more accessibility options such as character auto walk, more aim assist, traversal assist, etc.
Please tell me you don't actually believe that's the reason they don't support the PS4 controller in the PS5.
Yea but the folks who would use this stuff seem to be effusive about it in their trailer so I guess that means it works… just don't ask me how lmao
It is always a great thing to see whenever anything for accessibility is made available.
Hopefully, for CES, we will get to see examples of the controller in action since I am curious about how well it will work. Part of me is a touch thrown off by the UFO design in comparison to the Xbox adaptive controller (trying my best to not make this sound like "warring" since any accessibility made on any platform should be celebrated. That and there will likely be those who will be making those comparisons since these adaptive controllers can now be seen as a selling point too for those who wish to game), but if it can help out those who can use it to play on PS5, then that is more than enough.
Hopefully, for CES, we will get to see examples of the controller in action since I am curious about how well it will work. Part of me is a touch thrown off by the UFO design in comparison to the Xbox adaptive controller (trying my best to not make this sound like "warring" since any accessibility made on any platform should be celebrated. That and there will likely be those who will be making those comparisons since these adaptive controllers can now be seen as a selling point too for those who wish to game), but if it can help out those who can use it to play on PS5, then that is more than enough.
I mean I get the concept I just can't picture how that shape and design is helpful/functional. But I don't have any experience with these sorts of controllers or the needs of the folks who use them so I'm definitely not claiming they don't work or anything I just don't understand how haha.
They've been pretty heavily engaged with the accessibility features in all their games lately so that seems like it's in order.
So cool that Sony is now taking these steps.
Ball is in your court, Nintendo. But you need to understand what accessibility is first. For one, it's not insulting your players by letting the game beat itself.
Ball is in your court, Nintendo. But you need to understand what accessibility is first. For one, it's not insulting your players by letting the game beat itself.
the DS4 never working on PS5 games (only on PS4 titles played through BC) was just classic sony greed (you can use your DS4 to remote play PS5 games with no problem. funny, isn't it?). at least it was expected, as DS3 didn't work on PS4 either.
however, there was a workaround, which was using the various adapters out there (like cronus) -- with such an adapter you could use many different controllers instead of the dualsense, including the DS4. plenty of people used their adapters for totally benign reasons -- people who had custom setups for accessibility reasons, people who preferred the DS4 to the Dualsense, lots of legit things.
but at some point, sony patched this out, likely in response to cheating concerns (just google "cronus cheating" for some details) and the adapter stopped working for a lot of people natively. now, to get the adapter to work you have to play the PS4 version of games on PS5 or use remote play. not ideal when people might have invested a lot of money into their PS4 setups + the cost of the adapter itself.
So after reading about it, looking over the pictures and the features I think I might have figured it out. But I'll give a short overview of the XBox Adaptive Controller:
The Adaptive Controller is striving to let people who want to create one custom controller out of it. This is why you have the 3.5mm ports on the back attached to every single button push possible on a regular controller and have usb ports on each side for each analog stick. So you can add as many custom switches and sticks you want to make the setup you need.
Sony's Leonardo looks like it's leveraging using multiple controllers for one player. The blog says you can use just one Leonardo, a Dual Sense and a Leonardo, 2 Leonardo's or going up to 2 Leonardo's + A dualsense controller. Unlike the XB Adaptive Controller the Leonardo is using profiles to let you assign what buttons you need to what buttons you want on the Leo itself.
They only have 4 3.5mm ports for each Leo unit so you can only ever have a max of 8 depending on your controller(s) setup. And, at the very least, it doesn't *seem* like you can have your own joysticks attached like with the Adaptive controller. The one thing that perked my ears up is that going with the profile path they're letting you being able to set two functions to one button. So that may of be of interest to people. I'm curious what the price will be, because if you want to have access to two of the Leonardo joysticks you'll have to get two.
I hope this was a good explanation on the path Sony is going with vs. what MS did!
Always good to see more accessible controllers.
Judging from the lack of meaningful accessibility settings in their games, I would be surprised if we saw anything like this any time soon from Nintendo. They're a very "My way or the highway" type of company, for better or worse.
That's amazing! I hope it will be widely available and not just something they put out but no one can find it anywhere.
This. For my injury (which isnt visible) my hand starts hurting after a short time with DualSense but I can use dualshock 4 for hours without issue.
But this is great for a lot of people !
Awesome!! Love to see it and that working with experts to get it right.
Will wait for reviews on how well this works. It's interesting that they're taking a different approach from Xbox, which created a hub for standard connections to be plugged into, whereas PlayStation has it all in hand. They do say there's flexibility, but it's a different approach.Hope it still does include flexibility for other types of things (like.. some people just can't move one hand at all, is there allowance to move those functions to other types of switches?) Hoping this controller has maybe 2 or 3 3.5mm jacks and a free USB port just for a little bit of open ended flexibility. That could kind of get to the best of both worlds. Edit: I'm stupid and missed this in the press release. There are 4!! Awesome :D
Also a little bit disappointed that they didn't go all the way with the controller splitting functionality. Why not allow multiple standard controllers to be used simultaneously, too? It's not a number of inputs problem, clearly. I get it's probably not going to come up as much in a "pair with Leonardo" context, but it really will in a wider disability context. (You could easily imagine two people sharing controller functions just to get a quick experience in together, without having to buy this specialized kit). It's not THAT big of a deal, but I'd like to see them unlock this capability in software.
Other than that, it looks great and should be a great addition!! And again, the charities know a lot more than I do - which might as well be nothing, so ultimately, if they sign off on it I'll trust that this is a big step forward and will help meet the needs of many more people. So glad this is happening!
Will wait for reviews on how well this works. It's interesting that they're taking a different approach from Xbox, which created a hub for standard connections to be plugged into, whereas PlayStation has it all in hand. They do say there's flexibility, but it's a different approach.
Also a little bit disappointed that they didn't go all the way with the controller splitting functionality. Why not allow multiple standard controllers to be used simultaneously, too? It's not a number of inputs problem, clearly. I get it's probably not going to come up as much in a "pair with Leonardo" context, but it really will in a wider disability context. (You could easily imagine two people sharing controller functions just to get a quick experience in together, without having to buy this specialized kit). It's not THAT big of a deal, but I'd like to see them unlock this capability in software.
Other than that, it looks great and should be a great addition!! And again, the charities know a lot more than I do - which might as well be nothing, so ultimately, if they sign off on it I'll trust that this is a big step forward and will help meet the needs of many more people. So glad this is happening!
Honestly feels like a slap in the face to do this but still block ps4 controllers. I already have a setup I can use with the DS4 that they are blocking on PS4 for no reason except profit. Why do I need to buy another thing? Greedy bastards.