DAGERSystem, a company that specializes in video game accessibility, has announced the upcoming launch of an accessible games database. This database will allow players to search for games based on their accessibility and hardware needs.
Founded in 2012, DAGERSystem is a nonprofit consumer protection site that helps disabled gamers learn if a game is accessible to them before they buy it. The website regularly looks for physically disabled writers of all varieties to help them evaluate games for a wide range of disabilities. Announced yesterday, the Accessible Games Database is a tool that will let users select accessibility and hardware features they need to access a game and be given a list of games that accommodate those features. In the video, the narrator demonstrates a search for games that let players pause the game at anytime, allow saving anywhere, and the ability to remap button-mashing sequences to holding the button or tapping once.
The Accessible Games Database was slated for release on September 1st, but DAGERSystem President Josh Straub said in a letter that the launch date is being pushed back to the start of October so they can "launch with enough data to make the AGD both useful and valuable." We briefly touched base with accessibility specialist Ian Hamilton about this database and he said:
An ongoing source of pain for many gamers is being unable to make informed purchase decisions. The ongoing gamble of shelling out money on a game only to found out - at the start if you're lucky, half way through if you're not - that you can't in fact play it. In recent years growing numbers of studios have been making efforts to remedy this, publishing accessibility info on their websites. Sometimes even lengthy periods before the game launches, letting *all* their players get in on the hype and pre-orders. And Google have recently made some different kinds of progress, with accessibility info their Stadia storefront and Play Games app. But all of this progress still only covers a very small fraction of the market. So any means of getting relevant information into the hands of the people who need it is a clear win.
DAGERSystem's Accessible Games Database will launch October 1st.
