PlayStation has unveiled Mission Leonardo, a "highly customizable accessibility controller kit."
The company revealed this all through its CES 2023 presentation yesterday, stating that the tools is "designed to remove barriers to gaming and help players with disabilities play more easily, more comfortably, and for longer periods on PS5." It seems to be PlayStation's reply to Xbox's Adaptive Controller moreover geared towards accessibility for gamers. The company says it has labored with accessibility specialists at organizations like AbleGamers, Specific Impression, and Stack Up, along with neighborhood members and sport builders to design a controller tools like this that works "out of the box."
"It is built to address common challenges faced by many players with limited motor control, including difficulty holding a controller for long periods, accurately pressing small custers of buttons or triggers, or positioning thumbs and fingers optimally on a standard controller," a PlayStation Weblog post reads.
Here's a run down of the vital factor choices of Mission Leonardo:
- {{Hardware}} Customizations: "It includes a robust kit of swappable components, including a variety of analog stick caps and buttons in different shapes and sizes. Players can use these components to craft a wide array of control layouts. And the distance of the analog stick from the game pad can be adjusted to suit the player's preference. These components allow players to find a configuration that works for their strength, range of motion, and particular physical needs."
- Button Mapping: "The controller's buttons can be programmed to any supported function and multiple buttons can be mapped to the same function. Conversely, players can map two functions (like R2 + L2) onto the same button."
- Administration Profiles: "Players can store their programmed button settings as control profiles and easily switch between them by pressing the profile button. Up to three control profiles can be stored and accessed by the player from their PS5 console at any time."
Mission Leonardo could be utilized as a standalone controller or paired with additional Mission Leonardo or DualSense controllers. As a lot as two Mission Leonardo controllers and one DualSense could be utilized collectively to create a digital controller, in accordance with PlayStation.
The controller is extra expandable by 4 3.5mm AUX ports "to support a variety of external switches and third-party accessibility accessories." Furthermore, the controller's lower up, symmetric design permits avid gamers to reposition the analog sticks as shut collectively or as far apart as they want. And, because of the controller lies flat and would not must be held by a participant, it could nicely lay on a desk, wheelchair tray, desk, or one factor else. PlayStation says it could be merely secured to AMPS mounts or tripods, and oriented 360 ranges, too.
"Project Leonard is part of the PS5 product family and is based on the same design concept," Sony Interactive Entertainment designer So Morimoto writes throughout the weblog post. "We had been impressed by the idea of all avid gamers having enjoyable with the world of PlayStation collectively. Our workers examined over a dozen designs with accessibility specialists, looking out for approaches that can help take care of key challenges to environment friendly controller use. We lastly settled on a 'lower up controller' design that allows near free-form left/correct thumbstick repositionability, could be utilized without having to be held, and choices very versatile button and stick cap swapping.
"Because players can customize Project Leonardo according to their needs, there is no one 'right' form factor. We want to empower them to create their own configurations. The controller can also flexibly accept combinations of accessibility accessories to create a unique aesthetic. I am excited that the design will be completed through collaboration with players rather than presenting them with a single form factor."
Mission Leonardo would not however have a launch date or value.
