The PlayStation 5 Access Controller, which Yanko Design featured when it was first unveiled on World Disability Day, is now in the hands of several key voices in the disabled gaming community as previews began rolling out earlier today. So far, its reception is skewing positive across the board as Sony simultaneously revealed the controller’s packaging and peripheral Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit – with the latter available sometime in January 2024, at least one month after the global release of the PlayStation 5 Access Controller on December 6.
In fact, Grant Stoner, one of the most outspoken accessibility-focused video game journalists in the field, called the Access Controller “one of the five accessibility successes of 2023 so far” in a recent report on IGN.
On a broader note, we had great things to say about Microsoft’s widening array of accessibility accessories for Xbox and PC gamers in 2022. It’s safe to say that Sony’s recent push into making its own games and controllers more accessible can only bode well for a future where all gamers are included in the excitement and zeitgeist of new game releases as the gaming hobby continues growing in popularity.
Designer: Sony
Disabled reviewer Dynamic Reactions had the chance to go hands-on with the new Access Controller in IGN’s official preview of the new hardware, commending everything from the customizability of the buttons to the intuitiveness of its design – both from a hardware perspective, as well as in terms of how easy it was to set up and calibrate/recalibrate in the PlayStation 5’s internal menu.
Evidently, the Access Controller unlocks entirely new styles of play for those who struggle to play with standard controllers, such as in fighting games or action-heavy games where many buttons need to be pushed or held together in close succession, such as when doling out combos. Dynamic Reactions chimed in on how the Access Controller made that possible for her, saying, “Combos can be extremely tedious at best and incredibly painful at worst when you’re gaming with dexterity issues.”
“On a regular dualsense if the combo is reachable I often find myself moving my left hand over to the other side of the controller stretching my fingers trying to hit every button at the right moment. The access controller eliminates this problem by allowing you to map two actions to one button of your choice in the profile section with the assign simultaneous press menu.”
The new PlayStation 5 Access Controller is set to release on December 6 for an MSRP of $89.99 USD/$119.99 CAD/¥12,980 JPY/€89.99/£79.99 according to a recent PlayStation Blog post. Logitech’s G Adaptive Gaming Kit will expand the controller’s functionality with even more plug-and-play buttons and triggers, gaming mats with a hook and loop system to arrange buttons, and velcro ties for mounting. It will launch sometime in January 2024 for an MSRP of $79.99 or equivalent.
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