Reggie Fils-Aimé reveals that Nintendo worked on an adaptive controller for all platforms

Reggie Fils-Aimé, former executive director of Nintendo America as well as one of the best known people of the Japanese company, has revealed during a chat with the portal reverse that Nintendo worked on an adaptive controller with support for all platforms. When the executive retired and left Nintendo in 2019, the controller was still in development and at that time it had been a year since Microsoft had announced the Xbox Adaptive Controller, an initiative that has not only continued, but has expanded.

“Imagine an adaptive controller that you can play with on the latest Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo platform,” says Reggie Fils-Aimé. “That’s what we were working on three years ago.” Fils-Aimé does not know if Nintendo is still developing the peripheral or if the project passed on to a better life. He hopes that the company’s efforts in this regard have continued, but he claims to be unaware of the status of the device. Despite this, the executive maintains the hope that the command ends up bequeathing to the market.

Reggie Fils-Aimé also acknowledges that the Xbox Adaptive Controller was a starting point to create something with support for all consoles that offered the player various customization options. The aforementioned Microsoft controller is designed primarily to meet the needs of gamers with limited mobility and also acts as a hub in which external devices such as switches, buttons, levers and joysticks among others can be connected. In this way you can create a command adapted to the reality of each user.

In Reggie Fils-Aimé’s opinion, the video game industry must move forward to be accessible to a greater number of players, particularly with regard to controllers. The former head of Nintendo America affirms that “the best solution” is a device with support for all platforms, including consoles and PCs, that adapts to the player based on his physical abilities and what he can do with them. You never know, but after three years it seems unlikely that Nintendo’s adaptive controller is still alive.

Regarding the Xbox Adaptive Controller, you are no longer alone. Last May, Microsoft extended its initiative with a new line of adaptive accessories made up of the Adaptive Mouse, the Adaptive Buttons and the Adaptive Hub. Also, as of today Linux users know that there are people (outside Microsoft) working to make the Xbox Adaptive Controller have Linux support.