During Sony’s CES 2023 presentation, the company shared that it is working on a new accessibility controller kit, codenamed “Project Leonardo”.
Sony shared in an official blog post that it consulted with video game accessibility advocates such as AbleGamers and SpecialEffect to create a controller that is “highly configurable” and “interoperates with many third-party accessibility accessories”.
Leonardo’s kit includes PlayStation 5 face and trigger buttons that can be swapped around a wide circular gamepad, as well as a joystick that can be moved relative to the gamepad. It will also come with accessories in different shapes and sizes for “players to find a configuration that works for their strength, range of motion and specific physical needs,” and has four 3.5mm aux jacks to accommodate third-party accessibility. accessories, similar to Microsoft’s Adaptive Controller.
Leonardo can be used as a standalone controller, as a pair or in conjunction with the PS5’s included DualSense wireless controller, making it adaptable to a range of accessibility needs. Leonardo’s physical customization options are matched by its software options; Leonardo allows players to assign functions to different buttons and save three different configurations as profiles for ease of use.
While Sony’s first-party games have been pretty good at providing a robust range of accessibility options – both The last of us and God of War Ragnarok have won Game Awards for accessibility – it falls behind in terms of accessible hardware. Microsoft has its Adaptive controller in 2018 and in 2021, it launched a program for developers to submit their games to Microsoft for accessibility evaluation and testing by gamers with disabilities.
Project Leonardo is still in development and there is no word yet on a release date.
