Shes also been beaten, rather soundly, by a man using only his mouth.
Spohn himself knows well the value of play.
The modular design, especially with the Elite controller, is phenomenal for that reason."
“There’s a lot of different hardware options that we give out all the time.
More often than not, it comes from things like adapters.
Things like theTitan Twoallow you to play using, say, a DualShock on your Xbox.
Still, sometimes a more specialised controller is necessary.
“I would break them every day!”
Games like that are a little bit easier.
His Elden Ring profile, for instance, was just a mildly reworked setup forDark Souls.
The one party, in other words, that was looking for help in the first place.
Its an irony that isnt lost on Spohn.
One of my best friends in the world helped write the damn thing.
And I would love to be able to go play it.
Sony revealed their own adaptive controller, the Access, last year.
Platform exclusivity isnt the only barrier that needs clearing.
Some big companies are getting involved with far more positive outcomes.
Itll connect to a PlayStation too, with the right adapter.
As it turned out, Microsoft had more in the pipeline than just the one controller.
Crucially, the underlying aim doesnt appear to give Microsoft a stranglehold on the adaptive game controller market.
CAD models to 3D-print your own buttons are freely available to download too.
Sadly, its issues also extend beyond one platform-locked PS5 controller and some grumpy Destiny players.
Accessible controllers, adaptive or otherwise, are often crushingly expensive.
“You gotta buy a mount, he explains.
“You gotta have something to mount to it.
So its more like $800.”
I need a stylus pen, its like $100 bucks, because it’s amouthstylus pen.”
The Xbox Adaptive Controller?
75 / $100, 50% more than a standard current-gen Xbox gamepad.
The Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit?
90 / $100.
Among Microsofts recommended accessories list is a single 5x5in button for $75.
These controllers and adaptions are very expensive.”
So I know I need something like that.'
We get to go ‘Great, let’s figure it out.'"
And it’s because, yeah, it’s because they want that insurance money.
They want to make a profit."
This is no small matter.
There are other ways in which accessible hardware may not itself be accessible.
It’s little wonder that charities like AbleGamers and SpecialEffect have been kept busy.
And we’re like, okay, great.
And so they pulled us into a Zoom meeting.
And basically, theyre like, ‘Hey, we want to show you this controller.
However, legal says we can’t show it to you yet even [though] youre NDAd.
So they started drawing it!
And so we gave them as much as we could, based on their drawings.
“It went really well.
And that disability was solved.
And that’s not even true.
And you basically get outfitted for what you need for a mobility aid.
“It’s just really nice to see things like that happening,” he says.
“I think one of the main things is that it’s getting better.
You had smaller companies, like this one called Letmiss, which were focusing on PS3 games.
And their switch interface alone, where you plug everything in, was probably about 300.
It was more for the assistive tech side of things.
It’s a no-brainer, really.
The landscape is certainly getting a lot better.
There’s definitely room for improvements, but yeah, it’s certainly getting there.”
There are reasons to be optimistic.
However, and as it so often is, true change will be slow.
Making it work with any games system, not just PC, would help as well.
“I have spinal muscular atrophy.
I’ve had this disease for 40 years.
“What if I could just drive up and plug that into an Xbox?
Wouldnt that be a better idea?
So this kind of universal technology, this user input, is where we’re trying to drive things.
And so that’s our way of fighting against it.”
We want to make one rig that fits for multiple things.
