When Sony took the stage at CES 2023, PlayStation fans didn’t know what to expect.
The company had a history of using the tech expo to showcase new gaming hardware, like the PlayStation VR2, but its plans for the show aren’t ones that tend to leak beforehand. Left in the dark, eager PlayStation fans tuned in to the CES live broadcast to see what the future of PlayStation might hold.Rather than rolling a new console, Sony used its platform to put a spotlight on accessibility with an unusual controller.
Actually pulling that off would be a challenge. The needs of players with disabilities can vary wildly, making the idea of a one-device solution next to impossible. For John Zarganis, director of product operations at Sony Interactive Entertainment, the first step was figuring out some core roadblocks that a piece of assistive tech could help remove.
“We challenged our engineering and design teams to produce a variety of alternative form factor designs to address those three common challenges,” Zarganis says. “Four different concepts surfaced from these efforts: A large scale tabletop controller; a lap board or keyboard style layout, and two different split controller design concepts. The round, split controller design quickly emerged as a common theme and became our preferred solution to provide the most flexibility for users.
Collaboration is key Getting the right design was only one piece of the equation. True accessibility requires a deep attention to detail that goes far beyond the surface. It’s not just enough to add a few options into a game’s settings menu, for instance. That needs to be paired with accessible game design too.
“They consistently helped us focus our efforts away from trying to solve for specific conditions, and more toward trying to solve for specific impediments that might prevent users from effectively interacting with the standard controller,” Zarganis says.
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