“it will undoubtedly reduce the number of options available to players.”
“I couldn’t even begin to tell you the total cost,” she continues.
Microsoft has been quick to point out that devices connecting to the Xbox Adaptive Controller are unaffected.
Though, this places the onus on a equipment that is only helpful in specific use-cases.
“Decentralising is good, competition is good,” saysCaleb Kraft, founder ofThe Controller Project.
Competition, Kraft suggests, fuels interesting results.
“In the realm of accessibility, we have tons and tons of happy little accidents!”
It shouldn’t need to be said again, but we are not monolithic in our needs.
To block that - to limit it - and to do so without clarifying why feels gratuitous.
“I think it’s really just anti-gamer,” Robert Dale Smith, founder ofControllerAdapter.comsays.
If you do not receive an error code, then your accessory will not be impacted.
In some cases, the unauthorised accessory will be blocked from use to preserve the console gaming experience."
Pressed on whether Microsoft might finally want to elaborate, its spokesperson did not respond.
This feeling is only heightened in the wake of more bans in 2024.
All of which casts doubt on what has hitherto been a remarkable dedication to accessibility by Microsoft.
“Rather than just being indifferent and letting me use my own solutions.”
The irony is, for all the effort of Microsoft and Sony, the effects are temporary.
“It was relatively easy,” he says.
He tells me the adapter cost $30 in parts and took two days of work.
It makes the question of why Microsoft and Sony persist in these blocks more pertinent.
Is it designed to consolidate accessibility around adaptive controllers that work for only a fraction of disabled players?
We don’t know, because neither Sony, Microsoft, nor Nintendo will justify these decisions.
All to retain absolute authority over what we use to play games.
It feels remarkably callous.
Through 2023 and heading into 2024, we’ve lost so much from the gaming industry.
All in service of controlling what we put in a USB port.
