Tag Archives: PS5

Sony Includes Accessibility Options in PS5 and PS4 Beta

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Sony announced that their PS5 and PS4 beta includes features that are designed for accessibility. This could make gaming easier and more fun for people who have disabilities. It includes an update to party chat, new UI settings and a preview of a voice command feature.

The Verge reported that your PS5 can listen for the “Hey PlayStation!” voice command to let you find open games, apps, and settings as well as control playback during a show or song. Those who don’t want to use it can turn off this feature. According to The Verge, the “Hey Playstation!” command will be available in English for beta users with accounts registered in the US and the UK.

To me, it sounds like a player could choose to use the voice command feature, instead of the controller, to access menu items. That could make a huge difference for people who have disabilities that cause their hands to hurt.

The voice chat reporting feature has been updated. If you want to report something that someone in a party said, there are now visual indicators for you to identify who was speaking. The PlayStation Blog points out that this will help PlayStation Safety to take appropriate action based on your report.

The PlayStation Blog highlighted additional accessibility features. There are more screenreader languages, which read aloud on-screen text and provides spoken guidance for operation controls. Six additional languages have been added: Russian, Arabic, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, and Korean. This adds to the current languages: United States English, United Kingdom English, Japanese, Italian, German, Spanish, Latin American Spanish, French and Canadian French.

Screenreaders can be helpful for people who have low-vision or who are legally blind. Some games have very small text on the details of a quest, the books a player can open up in-game, and details about specific items. A screenreader gives players the information they cannot see.

Another accessibility feature allows people to enable mono audio for headphones so the audio is played from both the left and the right headphones, instead of a stereo or 3D audio sound mix. According to the PlayStation Blog, this feature provides an added option to enhance the PS5 audio experience, particularly for players with unilateral hearing loss.

Adding accessibility options is always a good idea! Doing so gives players who need those options an increased ability to participate in groups and to get more information within the games they choose to play.

E3 Goes Online

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It’s a big weekend for gamers as E3 goes online because of Covid-19 with Sony launching the PS5, the Gaming Show 2020 and the latest games from EA and Ubisoft.

Sony revealed the PS5 last night, and while the jury’s still out on the design, the games line-up looks pretty solid with a ton of games trailers – GTA V, GT7, Ratchet & Clank, Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Sony’s The Future of Gaming Show video is here and it starts with the upcoming games roster. For the hardware, jump forwards to about 69 minutes to see the new PS5 consoles which will be coming in two variants; the standard PlayStation 5 that will take 4K Blu-Ray disks and a slimmer diskless Digital Edition. It looks like a powerful console but the white design so reminds me of stormtrooper armour. It’s a noticeable departure from the largely black box of the PS2 through PS4. At this stage, availability is “holiday 2020” and there’s no news on price.

Also part of E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) online event, the PC Gaming Show will give everyone a chance to see the latest gaming news with over 50 games trailers over a promised two hours. It kicks off at 2pm EDT on a variety of social media platforms. I’ll be keeping an eye on the PC Gamer YouTube channel to see what’s coming to PCs over the next few months.

EA will be demoing their latest and greatest on 18 June and Ubisoft will be showing off their wares later in July. If you’re a gamer, there’s plenty to keep you busy over the next few days.