[Music] This is the Proteus controller. It's one of the most unique gaming controllers I've ever seen. It's completely modular and designed with accessibility in mind for players with disabilities. By connecting these kind of spheres, kind of cubes together, players can fully customize a game controller that fits their specific needs. I've got to speak to the team behind Proteus and have been playing around with it for a couple of weeks. Not only do I think this would be a great controller for players with disabilities, I think it would be a great controller for anyone. Let me tell you all about it. Putting the Proteus together is kind of like building something out of Lego. It's composed of a number of different attachments that range from analog sticks to face buttons to triggers. Pretty much everything you'd find on a normal Xbox controller can be found here, and there are bonus accessories that can be connected to make inputting specific commands easier. The controller is aimed at helping gamers who can't use a standard controller by changing and adapting to

the person's specific needs. It's being developed by Irish company Biowave, and I spoke to the CEO Brandon Blo and CXO Evelyn O'Rean about their journey to bring this concept to life. Yeah, so um, I have a disability. I have a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and when I was 14, I injured my hand and then uh, wasn't really able to play games without experiencing a lot of pain. So I can play for like 30 minutes and then my hand would get really sore and I'd have to stop, which is obviously not ideal. So I was just struggling to find a controller that worked for me, and things that were available on the market just didn't really fit what I had in my head. I quickly just hacked a controller, rewired it uh, in a 3D printed form factor, and Evelyn really liked that. The Proteus works by connecting these kind of cube, kind of sphere-like objects as a starting point. You insert these gear-like parts into the corresponding

slot and then slide the locking mechanism into place, holding the two parts together. By design, they're meant to be able to connect at any angle. However, you won't find a headphone jack for plugging in a headset, and there is no rumble or haptics. We worked with people that had Down syndrome, various forms of arthritis, missing digits, missing limbs, hemiplegia, quadriplegia. No single person envisioned their solution as being the same. Here's my attempt at creating the closest approximation to a standard Xbox controller that I could. All of these pieces can come off and be placed somewhere else. This includes the side paddles that sit against your palms. Face buttons, D-pad, and menu buttons can all also rotate and slide off to be positioned elsewhere. Biowave is working on an app to let you remap any of the buttons. However, at the time of this recording, it wasn't available for testing. For example, if you need an extra jump button placed somewhere specific, you can attach this large singular one.

and map it to the corresponding input. This goes for any of the three analog sticks included as well. The last attachments are these smooth colorful semicircles. These are designed to cover any remaining ports once you finish designing your controller. This helps preserve the connectivity of the ports while also preventing the player from having their hand pressed up against the pointy gears. One very cool function is that the controller can be taken apart while gaming and be rebuilt without any connection issues. Biowave calls it auto synchronization. It can't, however, be split into two pieces and used separately, similarly to how you can use both joycons individually when playing on a Nintendo Switch. One limiting factor I ran into is that the Spheres can only connect in one direction. It would have been nice if the package contained a kind of double-sided gear attachment so I could connect the Spheres in any orientation I wanted. Another issue I encountered is that it takes some real focus and effort to fully connect and lock everything into place, and I'm doing this from the perspective of someone

without any motor difficulties. I wouldn't be surprised if some people needed additional help from a friend when setting everything up. The more customization you offer, the more complexity increases, and the more overwhelming it can potentially be to find a starting point or to find your own ideal customization point. Our best approach for that right now is we've just found some starting configurations that resemble controllers that people already know and love, and we provide guides for how to build that controller first. And then from there, you might be able to learn where to go, and we do that for, you know, not just a standard controller. We do that for a one-handed controller, and we do that for, you know, a number of other specific use cases. Biowave is partnered directly with Microsoft, making the Proteus controller an official designed-for-Xbox peripheral. But it's worth noting that Xbox has its own accessibility-focused controller already, the Xbox Adaptive Controller. I asked Brandon and Evelyn how theirs compared. I tried the Adaptive Controller while that was like really great in terms of

like the customization. I wanted the kind of controller feel, so I didn't really have that with the adapter controller. It was like maybe too far from what I was used to with a standard controller. It's worth noting that using the Proteus controller will take some getting used to. If you're like me, having played games all your life, your hands have built up muscle memory for standard controllers, and learning something new will take time. But I'm not the target audience since I have no problems with the default. The Proteus gives options to those without any. A thing we heard from a lot of people is sometimes they don't necessarily want to feel like they're using an accessibility product. They want to feel like they're using a product that is for everyone, you know, and it feels cool if they're bringing it over to their friend's house. They don't want it to feel clinical. They want it to be something that they're proud to show off. Proteus works on Xbox or PC by connecting this USB Bluetooth receiver to the console. Two of the cubes have

power buttons located on them to turn it on. The sphere's LEDs will light up to indicate it's connected. A single power Cube has 13 hours of battery life, with around 5 to 10 hours when multiple cubes are connected in what biowave refers to as an average configuration. The cubes are charged by connecting this USBC accessory to the controller. Proteus can be played while charging. For my time with the Proteus, I can easily envision players without disabilities opting to use this too. Ergonomic keyboards and mice exist to rotate someone's wrist slightly, allowing for more comfort, and this controller can be built in a similar fashion. In fact, it seems like everyone has their own design of what the perfect controller should be, and this device caters to that. Building and customizing this controller is almost as fun as playing a game with it. People come in, we have a space in the office, and we invite people in, and they're like, Oh, where should I start, and what's the controller that you think will work for

me. I've learned to say, like, you'll have to just, like, find out. That's, like, part of it. Biowave is also planning to expand the number of attachments in the future. As of right now, the majority of input options are what you'd find on a standard controller. They also offer the STL files on their website, so you can download and 3D print your own additional accessories. We have way too many plans. We have a huge list of, like, additional parts that we'd like to add into the ecosystem because it's a modular system, to continue iterating on that, to bring out different types of peripherals or buttons that would then include more people as a kind of ecosystem grow as well. Looking at what's available for the Xbox adaptive controller, we can assume some of these more unique control interfaces, such as hand-sized buttons or levers, might be on the horizon. Biowave is announcing more details at this year's Gamescom in Germany, but as of this recording, the controller is available for pre-order now with a retail price of $300. Biowave.

couldn't stress enough that working with their community was integral to bringing Protus to life. They recommend checking out their Discord channel if you want to get involved, and I'll drop a link to that in the description below. When more people get to play games, we all benefit, and that's the goal with Proteus. Thanks so much to Brandon and Evelyn for talking to me and letting me play with their awesome device. If you're interested in accessibility controllers, check out my hands-on video on PlayStation's Access Controller and let me know if the Proteus is something that would benefit you as a gamer. Thanks so much for watching.

Proteus: One of the Most Unique Controllers Ever

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