BBC Newsbeat<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Assassin’s Creed publisher Ubisoft was the big winner at an awards ceremony celebrating accessibility in the gaming industry.<\/p>\n The French company, which has offices all over the world, was named Most Dedicated Publisher by GAConf.<\/p>\n The organisation works to make gaming more inclusive for people with disabilities – something companies have been focusing on more and more.<\/p>\n This year its awards show handed out prizes to games released in 2024 for features including those aimed at helping deaf and blind players.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ubisoft was also recognised for two games it released last year.<\/p>\n Star Wars Outlaws won the AAA Excellence award – for a big-budget title – for its long list of accessibility features<\/a>.<\/p>\n Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown – a 2D platformer released last January – was recognised for its “memory shards” feature.<\/p>\n The game requires players to navigate a large, complex map, often revisiting areas much later on in their playthrough.<\/p>\n Many titles in the genre allow a user to place small pins – or icons – as reminders of points of interest, but The Lost Crown lets them take a screenshot to aid their memory.<\/p>\n Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 also won an award for its automatic movement features, and Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred won for its blind and low vision accessibility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n GAConf also honours individuals in the games industry for their accessibility work.<\/p>\n Cari Watterton, who works for Sniper Elite developer Rebellion, won the MVP Award for Unsung Hero.<\/p>\n Speaking to BBC Newsbeat before her win, the senior accessibility designer said being recognised by others who work in her field “hits a little bit differently”.<\/p>\n “They understand the amount of work that goes into accessibility and the challenges that you face,” she said.<\/p>\n Newsbeat previously spoke to Cari about her work on accessibility in 2023.<\/p>\n At the time she said it had been a really great year in the space and more companies were looking to recruit specialists.<\/p>\n She says the progress could have looked “slower” over the past 12 months, but games take time to make and developers are working on new things.<\/p>\n “The important thing is that we are seeing something new, in hardware, features, in games adopting their first accessibility features,” says Cari. <\/p>\n “And we’re seeing the quality of these features improve as well, which is fantastic.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n GAConf co-director Ian Hamilton told BBC Newsbeat that “whittling down the longlist into the finalists for each category was by far the hardest yet” in the history of the ceremony.<\/p>\n Ian, who’s worked in the accessibility field since 2006, says the “landscape is really unrecognisable compared to even just five years ago, let alone ten”.<\/p>\n He said awareness of different players’ needs and the number of specialist roles in the games industry had vastly increased, and a number of mainstream game awards now have an accessibility category.<\/p>\n He said a dedicated ceremony allows the organisers to celebrate progress across the industry, giving awards in areas including advocacy, journalism and specialist resources.<\/p>\n “But there’s still a long way to go,” he said.<\/p>\n “And we’re a very long way off from where we really need to be – where anyone can pick up any game and have a reasonable expectation that they won’t be unnecessarily locked out.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cari says the impact has been felt across all areas of the industry, but she hopes developers will continue to push forward on accessibility.<\/p>\n “I don’t think accessibility will be singled out,” she says. <\/p>\n “I think it’s going to be part of it. Something that we’re all going to have to go through together. <\/p>\n “It’s a shame, but I know that so much has been proven with reaching more people.”<\/p>\n GAConf co-director Ian said the current climate had affected accessibility efforts, with dedicated roles cut and the scale of job losses meaning wider expertise has been lost.<\/p>\n However, he said that new positions were also being created and some teams were getting bigger.<\/p>\n “In terms of dedicated headcount we’re in a relatively stable place compared to the wider industry,” Ian said. <\/p>\n “Which I think is a strong statement about how much accessibility is now valued.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n AAA Excellence – Star Wars Outlaws<\/p>\n Indie Excellence – Another Crab’s Treasure<\/p>\n Best Deaf & Hard of Hearing Accessibility – Star Wars Outlaws<\/p>\n Best Physical & Mobility Accessibility – Call of Duty: Black Ops 6<\/p>\n Best Blind & Low Vision Accessibility – Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred<\/p>\n Best Cognitive Accessibility – Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown<\/p>\n Best Mental Health Accessibility – Life Is Strange: Double Exposure<\/p>\n Best Representation – Dragon Age: The Veilguard<\/p>\n![\"Ubisoft](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/ec8e\/live\/eb68bb30-dda0-11ef-a37f-eba91255dc3d.jpg.webp\")
Ubisoft<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Ubisoft](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/f111\/live\/26dd1170-dda1-11ef-926a-cbf3c346618d.png.webp\")
Ubisoft<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n‘In a relatively stable place’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
![\"Cari,](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/523b\/live\/177fd580-de48-11ef-a37f-eba91255dc3d.jpg.webp\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nGAConf 2024: Full list of winners<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/0485\/live\/c09e9820-de4a-11ef-902e-cf9b84dc1357.jpg.webp\")
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