The video game industry has long ignored players with limited mobility. As a result, gamers with limited mobility would either hack together hodgepodge tools and homemade controllers or had to spend a lot of money on a custom controller just to be able to play. For most, gaming was impossible. As the brand committed to empowering everyone to achieve more, Microsoft designed the first controller for gamers with limited mobility that enhances their gaming experience and empowers them to compete in new ways. We wanted to shine a light on how the Xbox Adaptive Controller is empowering people with limited mobility to play on a level playing field with other gamers for the first time.

Microsoft has had a long-standing commitment to creating accessible technology for everyone. With the launch of the Xbox Adaptive Controller, Microsoft wanted to challenge the gaming industry and put accessibility at the forefront of product design. With this, we developed a campaign as inclusive and accessible as the Adaptive Controller itself. We gave the device to gamers with limited mobility and filmed their experiences. Their voices and experiences playing with the Adaptive Controller became the backbone of each element of the campaign demonstrating the power of accessible technology to level the playing field and make the gaming world a more inclusive place.

To share Microsoft’s mission of empowerment with the biggest audience possible, we chose the biggest game day of the year to tell a story about leveling the playing field, and that when everyone plays, we all win.

Our PR strategy was proactive and was always meant to propel our authentic message beyond the reach of just our ads. Our approach mirrored the work—celebrating the children impacted by the controller. We utilized earned media, broadcast, and social to expand on the stories of the children, drive discoverability and ensure media appropriately represented the accessibility community. Our target audience included everyone—from the gaming community, to people living with disabilities, to the families of people living with disabilities, to everyone else watching the big game, and of course to Microsoft employees, too. We wanted to ensure that they that all understood that Microsoft was on a mission of inclusion and empowerment.

The team spent four months visiting children with limited mobility and their parents across the U.S. We gave them Adaptive Controllers – let them open the packages, helped them set them up, stepped back and watched them as they played. We captured docu-style content highlighting the impact that this type of technology can have on people’s lives, and edited together the real stories of these children’s experiences with the product. We launched a long-form campaign video on social media platforms the Thursday before the game, in order to build momentum, and get the conversation going. Then the 60 second commercial launched during the Super Bowl. Our amplification involved social media influencers, including celebrities, the gaming community and gamers with limited mobility, and we saw the conversation take off across the Internet. After the game, the conversation grew with coverage on key morning shows and across major press outlets.

The Xbox Adaptive Controller entered the market and was on shelves in the fall of 2018. Microsoft’s unique approach to the packaging set the new standard on accessible packaging design, while the device leveled the playing field for 33 million American gamers with disabilities. It didn’t just change the way gamers with disabilities played, it changed the entire gaming industry, with major competitors like Google enabling their platforms to be compatible with the Adaptive Controller. For Microsoft, the goal was never to sell more controllers, the goal was to empower people with disabilities and show the world why accessibility matters.

33 Million Gamers Empowered

Invention of the Year 2018–TIME Magazine

3 Global Patents

$35 Million in Earned Media

246% Increase in Social Voice

#1 Most Effective Super Bowl Ad

1.1 Billion Impressions

879% Increase in #GamingForEveryone

77% Increase in Conversation About Inclusive Gaming

58% Increase in Conversation About Inclusive Design