Video games are an incredibly popular pastime but the interface devices tend to be very specific. Controllers, especially official ones, are designed with a certain level of mobility in mind. Sony’s come up with something different, called Project Leonardo, that should let more players with limited mobility get their PlayStation 5 on.
The accessible controller formed part of Sony’s CES announcements this year, along with another look at that car the company’s been working on for some time. That’ll almost certainly turn up in the next Gran Turismo, due to be released sometime this decade. Maybe.
Leonardo turns up as PlayStation turns 28
It’s taken some time for Sony to get to this point. If the company had launched Project Leonardo in 2018, when Microsoft launched its Adaptive Controller, the Playstation brand would have been just 24 years old. That’s the acceptable age range for Leonardo, the internet has semi-reliably informed us. Still, better late than never. At least Sony’s unlikely to break up with this one.
And that’s a great thing, too. The controller setup is designed to function easily with minimal setup, letting gamers with disabilities play games in comfort for longer periods. The controllers can be used alongside a regular DualSense controller or on their own (or as a pair of Leonardo controllers). These may be customised to support a variety of stick and button layouts.
Button mapping can also be tweaked, including assigning two buttons to a single point on the controller. And since differing control schemes could call for specific layouts, button assignments can be stored as profiles. These can be switched, so players can move from optimised FPS controls to something that suits driving, flying, or RTS games a little better. They’re designed to played on a flat surface and players are also able to define which direction is ‘north’ on the thumbsticks. In the event that a player’s arms are immobilised in a set position, this could make navigation through a game simpler to process.
The only catch? Project Leonardo isn’t available yet and there’s no timeline available for its launch. Sony aims to “continue to gather valuable feedback from the community” prior to making these accessible controllers more… accessible. In a retail sense. Stay tuned.
