Electronic Arts has just announced the free provision of five technological patents dedicated to accessibility in video games. These patents are now at the disposal of the studios that would like to use them to make their creations more inclusive.

From the philantro mood, Electronic Arts offers a pretty advertisement when his rival Activision prefers to camouflage his name in the trailer of the last Call of Duty to forget his internal affairs. Electronic Arts’s commitment is therefore to freely share five accessibility-centered patents that can now be used by all other developers in the sector, including direct competitors. The list of these patents could also lengthen in the future according to the innovations carried out in this field. The five patents in question cover accessibility technologies aimed at helping players with vision, speech, hearing and cognitive disorders.

Among them is the patent of the ping system issued today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Used in Apex Legends , this communication technology helps people with speech, audition and cognitive disorders. The concept, which allows players to quickly inform their teammates by means of audio controls and contextual visuals at the touch of a key without the need to use a micro headset, has been hailed as a way to reduce Toxicity within the game and make it more accessible.

Other patents relate to technologies for making the games more accessible to visually impaired and hearing impaired players. Already utilized in the popular franchises FIFA and Madden NFL , they can for example detect and modify the colors, brightness and contrast of a game to improve the visibility of objects having similar luminosities .

On its launch, Electronic Arts also gives access to the open source code of a technical solution that addresses the problems of daltonism, brightness and contrast in digital creations. Available on Github, this code will allow developers around the world to apply Electronic Arts technology in their own games, which could include saving important research and development.

We are the first to announce a patent commitment that give priority to accessibility, but we hope that other actors in the industry will follow our traces by sharing their patents in turn. We are proud of our Patent program and we look forward to discovering what our fabulous inventors reserves us. , concludes the press release.