By Sagar V. Mankar 
Ubisoft, the renowned French video game publisher, received significant recognition at the GAConf Awards 2024 for its commitment to making games more accessible to players with disabilities. The company was honored with the “Most Dedicated Publisher” award on January 29, with their multiple titles taking top honors.
Another Ubisoft title, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, showcased creative problem-solving in game design. The game introduced an innovative “memory shards” feature, allowing players to capture and pin screenshots to their in-game map. This thoughtful addition helps players navigate the game’s complex environment, particularly beneficial for those who might struggle with spatial memory or need additional navigation support.
The awards ceremony celebrated achievements across various categories, recognizing different aspects of accessible gaming. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 received recognition for its advanced movement assistance features, while Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred was praised for implementing new audio cues that help visually impaired players navigate the game world more effectively.
In the representation category, Dragon Age: The Veilguard stood out for its inclusive character creation options. The game allows players to create characters with realistic features like cataracts and vitiligo, developed in consultation with multiple experts to ensure authentic representation.
The awards also acknowledged individual contributions to accessible gaming. Cari Watterton from Rebellion, the studio behind Sniper Elite, received the MVP Award for Unsung Hero, recognizing her behind-the-scenes work in making games more inclusive.
Here’s a complete list of winners at GAConf 2024 announced on January 29:
GAConf 2024 Award Winners
- AAA Excellence – Star Wars Outlaws (Ubisoft)
- Recognized for a wide range of accessibility features, including configurable gameplay contrast, menu narration, blind-accessible open-world map, scalable UI, audio description for cinematics, automation assists, subtitle and captions system, cognitive accessibility presets, and space flight sim sickness settings.
- Indie Excellence – Another Crab’s Treasure
- Awarded for innovative gameplay modifiers in a Soulslike game, including the ability for the crab to use a gun, making it more accessible.
- Best Deaf & Hard of Hearing Accessibility – Star Wars Outlaws (Ubisoft)
- Features include a detailed subtitle and captions system with alien translations, optional minigame visual cues, scalable large text, bold text options, and an audio focus mode to emphasize essential sounds.
- Best Physical & Mobility Accessibility – Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- Recognized for intelligent movement automation, including sprint assist, mantle assist, crouch assist, and corner slice automation in PVP games.
- Best Blind & Low Vision Accessibility – Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred
- Acknowledged for a blind navigation assist update that introduces multi-layered audio cues to help players navigate to quest markers.
- Best Cognitive Accessibility – Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (Ubisoft)
- Won for its “Guided Mode” that provides extra map assistance, a consequence-free training area, and the “memory shards” feature that allows players to pin screenshots to the map.
- Best Mental Health Accessibility – Life Is Strange: Double Exposure
- Recognized for a configurable in-game content warning system that allows players to pause when warnings are displayed.
- Best Representation – Dragon Age: The Veilguard
- Won for offering cataracts and vitiligo options in the character creator, adjustable sliders for patterns and amounts, and realistic arm and leg prosthetics designed in collaboration with consultants.
- Best Journalism – A Prominent Accessibility Advocate Never Actually Existed (Grant Stoner)
- Awarded for outstanding journalism covering accessibility-related topics.
- Best Academic Research – Surveyor
- Recognized for its contribution to academic research in accessibility within gaming.
- Best Assistive Technology – ByoWave Proteus
- Won for being a fully modular accessibility controller, allowing custom configurations for users with diverse needs.
- Best Accessibility Resource – Xbox Game Accessibility Workshop Toolkit
- Acknowledged for being a valuable toolkit designed to assist developers in implementing accessibility features in games.
- Best Comms & Marketing – Access-Ability Summer Showcase
- Recognized for accessibility previews of upcoming games, featuring guest appearances from disabled players and consultants, with captioning, ASL, BSL, and audio descriptions.
- Most Improved – Diablo IV
- Won for continuous accessibility improvements through multiple patches, including character highlights, auto-pin, compass, blind navigation assist, and improved screen reader functionality.
- Greatest Accessibility Innovation – Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (Ubisoft)
- Recognized for its “memory shards” feature, allowing players to pin screenshots to the map for better navigation and recall.
- Most Dedicated Publisher – Ubisoft
- Won for its commitment to accessibility across multiple games, including Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Star Wars Outlaws, Monopoly, Skull & Bones, XDefiant, Just Dance 2025, Just Dance VR, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and its accessibility engagement at major events.
- Most Dedicated Studio – Ubisoft Kyiv
- Acknowledged for its role in developing accessibility features across Ubisoft’s game portfolio.
- The Advocacy Award – Matthew “TheWobblyGamer” Allcock
- Partially sighted advocate, consultant, content creator, and streamer working to improve visual accessibility.
You can check the more details at the GAConf 2024 Awards official.