Gabi Michel (left), senior hardware program manager with Microsoft Devices, moderated by Keisha Howard, founder of Sugar Gamers.
Gabi Michel (left), senior hardware program manager with Microsoft Devices, moderated by Keisha Howard, founder of Sugar Gamers.
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Making games more accessible with the Xbox Adaptive Controller

I’ve been fascinated with Microsoft’s journey to make, ship, and market the Xbox Adaptive Controller, an accessory for the game console for those with limited mobility to play games. And so I was thrilled to be able to include a talk on the controller at our recent GamesBeat Summit 2019 event.

Over the past few years, the company rallied around an idea to make gaming more accessible to a wider audience. The proposal for the controller floated up to Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, and he greenlit it. Microsoft announced it in the spring of 2018, wrapped it in accessible packaging, launched it last fall, and promoted it with a touching commercial that aired during the Super Bowl with the message, “When we all play, everybody wins.”

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.