You may not be aware, or you may be aware of the official Ubisoft podcast titled “Game Makers”.The podcasts tend to go into detail on various audio-related topics, such as the music in the Assassin’s Creed games, creating sound effects, and even discussing a song from Just Dance 2020. In the latest episode, the podcast has invited Cherry Thompson, Ubisoft Montreal’s Accessibility Project Manager to speak about accessibility in video games.
Cherry Thompson shares their journey in the video game industry, touching on barriers faced before eventually ending up at Ubisoft. They also talk about the process they go through in their role in making sure games are created to be accessible, talking about looking out for issues with colorblindness, mobility issues, and more.
There’s also discussion surrounding how developers can approach making their games more accessible, such as audio, design, and more. They explain that developers are making barriers without realizing it, and can make those barriers easier to overcome for others.
Recently, Ubisoft has detailed how it will be focusing on making its games accessible for blind players. Cherry reiterates that the company wants to make accessibility part of its DNA, meaning everything from websites, forums, games, etc are as accessible as possible. As for current projects, they state that can’t share any details about what features are being introduced or worked on at this moment in time.
The company has been one of the notable AAA studios that have included a wealth of accessibility features that have grown and improved over the years. Assassin’s Creed Origins introduced customizable subtitles that carried on over into Odyssey, Ghost Recon Breakpoint had very customizable key rebinding, and more.
Ubisoft has also been outlining plans to update current games such as Rainbow Six Siege to introduce better features to allow more players to enjoy the game.
The podcast is available to listen for free on Spotify and is an hour long pretty much. There’s no transcript available but if you are interested in giving it a listen, you can find it embedded below, or you can pop over to Spotify and listen to it there.
