News
PlayStation 5 Introduces Customizable Controller Kit for Accessibility
posted on by Joanna Cayanan
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) announced on Wednesday that is developing Project Leonardo – a new, highly customizable accessibility controller kit to help players with disabilities play more comfortably – for the PlayStation 5.
The company is working with accessibility experts to develop the controller, and the official PlayStation YouTube channel posted a video on Thursday featuring some of the experts talking about Project Leonardo, and the importance of game accessibility.
Project Leonardo's symmetric design allows players to reposition the analog stick and the controller lies flat, and can be easily secured to mounts or tripods.
The controller has a kit of swappable components including a variety of analog stick caps and buttons in different shapes and sizes. These components can help players create different control layouts, and the distance of the analog stick from the game pad can be adjusted according the player's strength, range of motion, and particular physical needs.
Players can also do software customizations for Project Leonardo like button mapping, and creating control profiles on the PlayStation 5 console. Button mapping lets players program multiple buttons to the same function, and two functions onto the same button.
Players can save their programmed button settings as control profiles and switch between them by pressing the profile button. Players can store and access up to three control profiles.
The Project Leonardo controller can be paired with up to two Project Leonardo controllers and one DualSense wireless controller. It also has four 3.5mm AUX ports to support other external switches and third-party accessibility accessories.
Source: Official U.S. PlayStation blog (Hideaki Nishino)