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Harmonix CEO pledges support for disabled gamers

Company will also work to make its games more accessible, CEO donates $10,000 to charity

Words: on April 26, 2011
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Alex Rigopulos, the co-founder and CEO of Harmonix, the studio behind Rock Band and the original Guitar Hero, personally donated $10,000 to the Able Gamers Foundation on Monday.

Able Gamers is a charity founded in 2004 dedicated to working with developers in order to make games more accessible to disabled players. In the past they've worked with Mythic Entertainment to help make Warhammer Online more accessible, and advised Blizzard on how to make World of Warcraft more useable for colorblind players.

Harmonix will work with Able Gamers to make its games more accessible in the future. "I believe that finding ways to better accommodate people with disabilities is a vitally important responsibility for the videogame industry. Harmonix is working with the AbleGamers Foundation to learn what we can do in future products to be as inclusive as possible," said Rigopulos.

The Able Gamers Foundation also runs Ablegamers.com, a website dedicated to reviewing and covering videogames from an accessibility perspective.

Source: Game Politics

Apr 26, 2011

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6 comments

  • rabidpotatochip - April 26, 2011 11:13 p.m.

    @garnsr "It's nice to try to let in as many people as possible, but we need to avoid killing everything for normal people in the name of allowing a minority of people to get involved." Seriously? Games have had the option to change your key bindings and input method for just about ever. As for color, sound and whatever else, it can be put in as an option.

  • garnsr - April 26, 2011 10:59 p.m.

    Harmonix games are about the last you could really change to work for everyone. And how can anyone really expect everything to work for everyone who isn't "regularly able?" It's nice to try to let in as many people as possible, but we need to avoid killing everything for normal people in the name of allowing a minority of people to get involved.

  • rabidpotatochip - April 26, 2011 6:58 p.m.

    That's pretty awesome. I believe everyone has the right to be a gamer should they so choose so good on you, Alex Rigopulos.

  • nadrewod - April 26, 2011 6:32 p.m.

    Oh, just thought of another possibility for what this could mean: customizable button layouts for Guitar Hero and Rock Band! After all, some controls that work fine for most people don't work at all for disabled people (either because their custom gaming rigs won't allow it, or the controls require a motion that the disabled can't perform).

  • CAPST3R - April 26, 2011 5:35 p.m.

    Well, they might as well have something to do while they're sitting on their arses doing nothing. I'm not a discriminator, I dislike everyone equally. Well, I do like myself. I guess that means I discriminate against myself as the minority.

  • PimplesInYourAsstista - April 26, 2011 5:17 p.m.

    Thats great and all, good on Harmonix, but...well, besides maybe a colour blind option for the notes, what else could they do?

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