EA offers technologies for accessibility elements -apkrig free of charge
As part of the Positive Play initiative, Electronic Arts developers are releasing five patents for their own technologies that help expand overall accessibility in games and cater not only to disabled players. EA studios use them in games like Apex Legends, the Battlefield series, as well as sports and story titles such as Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, where they help with text readability, color palette or communication between players. As of yesterday, however, the five technologies can be used by anyone who applies for them at Electronic Arts, and of course they will not only receive formal permission, but also the complete documentation necessary for full implementation into the title. EA is doing so selflessly to help make games accessible to anyone and appealing to other developers or publishers to join the initiative.
EA’s Chris Bruzzo tells us why the publisher is making five patents for accessibility tech freely available to other devs – including Apex Legends‘ Ping Systemhttps://t.co/QYMRh6PXjh
– GamesIndustry (@GIBiz) August 24, 2021
“We believe that it is necessary to respond to the needs of different sections of the population, not only in the field of video games and only among people with disabilities,” say EA representatives. Subsequently, they confirm the release of the mentioned five patents, among which is the pinging system from the game Apex: Legends. When the Respawn developers introduced it less than three years ago, it caused a legitimate upheaval, which only underscored the interest of other developers to implement something similar in their titles, but now the system is no longer necessary. inventbut take over the whole from EA. In addition to the ping system, the company offers image processing solutions for players with visual and hearing impairments, for which complete documentation and examples of use are immediately prepared at Github. “Every developer in the industry will be able to use our technology patents focused on accessibility, without our claim to any fee,” confirms EA, but warns that it will not provide any guarantees or support in the use of these technologies.
It will be interesting to see if anyone really joins the initiative and will also offer their own free accessibility systems.
Positive Play President Chris Bruzzo then spoke with the editors of Games Industry magazine and expressed the idea of several companies working together. “We want to motivate others and invite them to this step. We offer technology that we have developed ourselves and we ask what other developers have at their disposal, ”says Bruzzo. He then uses the word “license” when talking about the use of EA patents, but he himself confirms that his company will not charge any fees and the license is only a formal confirmation that the developer is using the technology. Bruzzo is not afraid of competition either, and explains that EA still has a lot of patents that – logically – it will not offer to anyone. In addition, he does not think that the video game environment is an overly competitive environment, and he uses healthcare as an example of such an industry. “It simply came to our notice then. As for secrets, inventions, breakthrough discoveries and patents, “Bruzzo lists. He also explains that patents are kept by companies so that they can benefit from them, and this is probably not necessary in the field of accessibility and inclusion.
However, it will be interesting to see if anyone really joins the initiative and will also offer their own free accessibility systems. Probably the furthest in this field went the developers from Naughty Dog with the second part of The Last of Us, which can be played blindly. After all, Lukáš Hosnedl, who is blind himself from birth and could still enjoy The Last of Us Part II, was able to enjoy it in a live broadcast.
