Director of 2018’s PlayStation masterpiece, God of War, Cory Barlog has some words to say.
The debate around accessibility in gaming has been on everyone’s lips for the past few weeks, following the launch of FromSoftware’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
The notoriously difficult game comes from studio behind other notoriously difficult games such as Bloodborne and the Dark Souls series, but it got people questioning whether or not these games need to be more playable for less-skilled gamers.

While most people weighed in with “no, if you can’t play it, don’t play it,” lots of people took the other side of the argument. One of those people was Cory Barlog, director of the immensely spectacular and multiple Game of the Year award winner, God of War.
Over on Twitter, Barlog wasn’t shy about sounding off on the topic, pointing out the difference between a game having “accessibility” and having an “easy mode.”
He tweeted: “Accessible features do not equal easy mode. Challenge, even extreme challenge, can coexist with options to allow gamers different from you to play the same game with the same level of challenge.”

This statement followed his expression of support for accessibility options in games, where he said of FromSoftware: “Love their work and fully support all creators to decide what is best for their games. To me, these [accessibility] options to not detract from vision. That’s all.”
Naturally, people were quick to jump in with their own opinions, but it still seems many are confusing the meaning of “Accessibility.”
In the words of Ian Hamilton: “Ease/difficulty exists in the interaction between player and game, ability Vs barrier.
“Accessibility is about avoiding unnecessary mismatches between impairment & barrier.
“So it’s all related. All accessibility options affect difficulty, all options affect accessibility.”
See? Difficulty and accessibility – not the same thing.
The debate is still being hotly discussed across social media. What’s your opinion?

Featured Image Credit: Santa Monica Studio