Close Menu
Technology Mag

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    US Taxpayers Will Pay Billions in New Fossil Fuel Subsidies Thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill

    September 15, 2025

    Amazon announces fall hardware event

    September 15, 2025

    AirPods Pro 3 review: tripling down on a good thing

    September 15, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Subscribe
    Technology Mag
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    • Home
    • News
    • Business
    • Games
    • Gear
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Security
    • Trending
    • Press Release
    Technology Mag
    Home » Sony’s New Access Controller Reveals a Big Problem in Adaptive Gaming
    Games

    Sony’s New Access Controller Reveals a Big Problem in Adaptive Gaming

    News RoomBy News RoomDecember 11, 20233 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Email

    Similarly, third-party options that are smaller, bigger, or unorthodox shapes can be better for players than adaptive controllers and avoid the steep costs associated with them. “That kind of cheap entry point might not be something many think of as accessibility,” Dale continues. “But weird unofficial controllers with just the right mix of features are a big reason I was able to game in my teens.”

    With accessibility being pulled into the orbit of proprietary controllers, however, solutions—if they remain viable—are lost behind a paywall erected by the Access controller and its peers.

    Worse, focusing on adaptive controllers can mask other ways we should be mitigating the cost of accessibility. When Todd Howard placed the onus on the XAC when pressed on accessibility in Starfield, he exemplified how easy it is to lose sight of the importance of software level accessibility.

    If we buy a game only to find it inaccessible, that in itself represents a wasted expense. But this extends to making hardware more accessible and, in particular, more customizable on a software level. How much more? “Ultimately, as customizable as possible,” Kraft says. “If on the Xbox there were so many options for customizing the way your controllers and your XAC worked that it was just overwhelming, then you might have a reduction in the amount of people that need other things.”

    Nor should we ignore the information vacuum that accompanies accessible hardware. “To improve the cost of accessibility disabled gamers need a range of choices and an easier way to research and access different accessible solutions,” says Gohil. Something that, arguably, Sony and Microsoft should be doing more to mitigate.

    Fortunately, it can also be addressed without them. The onus is currently on charities to do so when a well-resourced, affiliated, and platform agnostic organization would be better-equipped. “A really good fit for this would be somebody like Epic, who has the Unreal engine,” he says. “You have games on the Unreal engine that are going onto PlayStation, that are going on a Nintendo, that are going into Xbox, PC.”

    It may sound like a small thing, but simply knowing what’s out there and what it does can stop players wasting money on solutions inappropriate to their experiences. Still, even these specific solutions need to be part of a wider, diverse, and affordable landscape of accessible hardware and not looked upon as ultimate solutions to the high costs of accessibility. Something made exponentially more difficult by the potential of the focus being placed on the idea of a single solution—even if, in an ideal world, we had a cross-party adaptive controller.

    None of this should suggest the Access controller isn’t a welcome addition to accessible hardware solutions, but nor should we consider it a panacea to videogame inaccessibility. With its $90 price tag, it does little to mitigate the current cost of accessible hardware, especially as it and other adaptive controllers are brute forced into the position of being the only solution for their consoles.

    It’s something that has the potential not just to limit the options for players but also slow down the reduction of costs that remain prohibitive, pushed into inertia by the recommended retail price of proprietary devices. In so doing, stagnating the impressive progress we’ve seen in the last few years and further punishing players with steep costs, simply for being disabled. For, as Gohil says, for all the issues in accessibility, “the increasing financial pinch on disabled gamers is a key factor making gaming inaccessible.”

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleReddit has ‘restored services’ after major outage
    Next Article The Verge’s 2023 holiday gift guide for moms

    Related Posts

    Nintendo Drops Surprise Trailer for New ‘Super Mario Galaxy Movie’

    September 14, 2025

    Nvidia’s GeForce Now Update Feels Like Someone Put an RTX 5080 in My MacBook

    September 12, 2025

    ‘Hollow Knight: Silksong’ Is Already Causing Online Gaming Stores to Crash

    September 12, 2025

    How ‘Hollow Knight: Silksong’ Fans Turned Waiting for Its Release Into a Game

    September 11, 2025

    The ‘Final Fantasy Tactics’ Refresh Gives Its Class-War Story New Relevance

    September 10, 2025

    8BitDo’s N64 Controller Is Better Than Nintendo’s Original

    September 4, 2025
    Our Picks

    Amazon announces fall hardware event

    September 15, 2025

    AirPods Pro 3 review: tripling down on a good thing

    September 15, 2025

    The New Math of Quantum Cryptography

    September 15, 2025

    Charlie Kirk Was Shot and Killed in a Post-Content-Moderation World

    September 15, 2025
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Vimeo
    Don't Miss
    Science

    ‘People Are So Proud of This’: How River and Lake Water Is Cooling Buildings

    By News RoomSeptember 15, 2025

    “In the old days, it was more like a luxury project,” says Deo de Klerk,…

    Microsoft is changing how Xbox controllers work on Windows 11

    September 15, 2025

    Researchers Create 3D-Printed Artificial Skin That Allows Blood Circulation

    September 15, 2025

    Apple’s new iPhone charger is a first of its kind

    September 15, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of use
    • Advertise
    • Contact
    © 2025 Technology Mag. All Rights Reserved.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.