CES 2023: Sony has revealed new inclusive controls for PlayStation

the tech giant sony He held his traditional lecture on Wednesday evening before the start of Consumer Electronics Show 2023known by the acronym CES, in which he made various announcements focused on new adaptive controls for the console playstation 5 and its mobility unit with the prototype car AFELA.

In principle, Sony seeks to continue promoting the fifth generation of its console to include more and more players in its technological ecosystem. That’s why he’s building a new inclusive joystick called “Leonardo Project”, a kit that promises to make games easier for people with motor disabilities to play.

In the initial images, released during the conference in Las Vegas, “Project Leonardo” is a set of circular gamepads covered with buttons and directional input methods, all of which can be customized.

In this regard, Sony has ensured that the system will work directly with PS5, allowing gamers create your ideal gamepadswapping hardware and creating different profiles based on your user experience.

“Our team has tested more than a dozen drawings with accessibility experts, looking for approaches that help address the main challenges for effective use of controllers. We finally settled on one “split controller” design. which allows almost free repositioning of the left/right joystick, can be operated without holding down the joystick, and features very flexible switching of buttons and stick caps,” said Sony designer So Morimoto.

“Project Leonardo” is expected to be used on its own or paired with the console’s DualSense joysticks: up to two Leonardos and one DualSense can be combined to form a large gamepad. This gives players flexibility and allows other people to do it as well Helps control games.

As for the rest of its features, the hardware includes four 3.5mm AUX ports to accommodate a variety of existing accessories and accessibility switches.

With the Leonardo Project, Sony follows in the footsteps of its rival Microsoftwho drove accessibility efforts when released the Xbox Adaptive Controller in 2018.

During the conference there were also previews of the projects they have with the video game “Gran Turismo”, starting with a video of the film of the same name adapted by director Neill Blomkamp.

The South African, who was present, assured that one of the challenges of the project that will hit theaters on August 11 was to maintain the sensory experience of the game for fans and provide the necessary narration to the story for those who are not familiar with with video games.

In addition, the president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jim Ryan, announced that the video game will also be available to be used through the virtual reality helmet. Playstation VR2, the sale of which is scheduled for February 22, 2023.

AFEELA cars made their presentation at CES 2023

On the other hand, the technology and entertainment company Sony has shown for the first time the prototype of the new car in which it works in collaboration with Honda, AFEELA.

“We believe the future of mobility is not just about transportation. Sony is committed to developing a software-based mobility platform with our Honda joint venture‘said Sony CEO Kenchiro Yoshida minutes before presenting the prototype car at the conference.

Among the data they revealed about the vehicle, they announced that the car will have a screen in the front that will allow information to be shared with the outside, it will have 45 cameras and sensors inside and outside that will try to ensure safety of users to avoid accidents.

According to the general manager of Sony Honda Mobility, Yasuhide Mizuno, the project proposes a new mobility experience and was created on three axes: autonomy, which guarantees the user’s safety, argumentation, which proposes an entertainment space , and that of affinity which has to do with their contribution to society.

Sony representatives announced that AFEELA will have a pre-sale period and begin shipping in 2025, and that the first shipment to be delivered in North America will arrive in spring 2026.