Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit for PlayStation Access Controller: Review

While the following is a review of the Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit for Access Controller for PS5, I believe that it’s important to first give context on its predecessor, to properly contextualise who this new kit of accessible input devices is designed for.

Back in November 2019, around one year after the release of the Xbox Adaptive Controller, gaming peripheral manufacturer Logitech released the Adaptive Gaming Kit, a series of external 3.5mm buttons and switches designed for use alongside the Xbox Adaptive Controller.

While 3.5mm input devices for the Xbox Adaptive Controller had already existed on the market, this collection of inputs offered a cheap, affordable entry point to accessing additional basic inputs, for disabled gamers whose needs either fell within a range of common use cases, or those unsure which types of inputs might be right for them and who were looking for a place to start experimenting.

The kit shipped with Xbox button labelling stickers, designed to match the colours of their associated controller buttons, as well as a fabric covered pad to help keep buttons in place via velcro, and a pack of 12 button inputs across four designs.

The kit came bundled with four light touch finger buttons, two analogue triggers, three small circular buttons, and three large circular buttons.

The package retailed for £90 in the UK, with all 12 inputs being able to be used at once via the Xbox Adaptive Controller’s 20+ available 3.5mm input ports.

The kit also featured accessible packaging considerations, including packaging secured shut using velcro rather than hard to remove stickers, a lack of twist ties in the box, and holes in cardboard to make packaging elements easier to lift where required.

The buttons are all reasonably sturdy and well made, and offer a decent amount of flexibility for placing buttons where they’re most useful, and offering alternative input options to players.

By comparison, the new Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit for Access Controller for PS5 offers a very similar selection of 3.5mm inputs, with it mainly being differentiated by an altered pricepoint, the selection of stickers available in the box, and the quantities of each button type included in the package.

The Logitech Adaptive Gaming Kit for PlayStation sells for £70 in the UK, a £20 reduction in price compared to the Xbox kit. It comes with black and white stickers featuring PlayStation controller button icons, rather than the colourful Xbox icon equivalents. It features the same accessible packaging considerations as the Xbox kit, and is a very similar experience to unbox and set up.

The kit still contains two analogue trigger inputs, but sees the number of each other input device type reduced. The kit now includes two low resistance finger buttons rather than four, two large circular buttons rather than three, and two small circular buttons rather than three.

In total, the package features four fewer buttons, two low resistance finger buttons and one of each circular size button having been removed, compared to the more expensive Xbox kit.

Comparing the price per input, the PlayStation Adaptive Gaming Kit works out slightly more expensive at £8.75 per input, compared to the Xbox kit’s £7.50 per input, when averaged across the price of each kit.

Taking a step back to editorialise, I think there’s a very clear reason for this reduction in the number of inputs in the PlayStation Adaptive Gaming Kit compared to the previously released Xbox kit. The PlayStation Access Controller does not feature the 20+ 3.5mm input ports seen on the Xbox Adaptive Controller. Instead, each PlayStation Access Controller features only four 3.5mm input ports, for a total of eight ports available if you own a pair of Access Controllers. The reduction of inputs available in the box feels deliberately designed to avoid exceeding the number of input ports thats available on PlayStation’s accessibility controller.

I also believe the reason we see reductions impact every input device type in the box apart from the included pair of analogue trigger inputs is similarly clear, the Access Controller does not feature any analogue inputs as standard. If you want to use the Access Controller, and cannot hold a regular DualSense for analogue inputs in games where those are mandatory, a pair of analogue trigger inputs is a necessity. This was the one input type in the Xbox Adaptive Gaming Kit which could not be reduced to hit that target maximum of eight inputs.

So, ultimately where do I fall on the Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit for Access Controller for PlayStation? It’s a cheaper version of the Xbox kit, with different stickers and reduced contents, at a slightly higher average per input cost, but a lower overall entry price. If the PlayStation kit contains enough switches of the correct types for you, then it’s a decent way to save £20. If your ideal setup might require more low resistance finger switches, maybe you splurge a little extra for the Xbox kit and just make your own stickers for button labelling. If you own both an Xbox Adaptive Controller and a PlayStation Access Controller and you’re likely to use more than eight inputs at once on your Xbox controller, you should probably pick up the Xbox kit and make your own labels for when you’re playing on PlayStation. You get more inputs, and you get them at a better value for money.

It seems pretty clear the only real reason that this kit exists at a different price point and containing a different number of inputs is to avoid highlighting that the Access Controller was designed with fewer external input ports than either of its main competitors, the Xbox Adaptive Controller or the Hori Flex. This is a design decision that I was critical of in my review of the PlayStation Access Controller; it feels like a needless limitation on the device’s usefulness, and one which should ideally be rectified in a future revision of the controller. A version of the PlayStation Access Controller with more 3.5mm ports available would be a much easier recommendation than the controller currently is, as right now it’s the main reason I’m hesitant to call it the best option available for accessibility controllers on consoles.

In a perfect world, we would see Logitech release the Adaptive Gaming Kit in small or large version bundles, differentiated largely by the numbers of included switches, with each version containing both consoles set of button stickers, therefor making the choice available to consumers about the input number and price that they need rather than brand association, but that would require Xbox and PlayStation to share branding space, which I suspect is a no go for the pair of companies.

Right now, it feels like the Adaptive Gaming Kit for PlayStation exists out of a necessity not to highlight the Access Controller’s more limited number of available 3.5mm inputs. If you’re someone who’s going to use these buttons across multiple accessibility controllers the Xbox Adaptive Gaming Kit is a slightly better value for money proposition if its larger number of inputs is useful to you. This version of the kit is cheaper overall, and it features PlayStation specific button stickers, but that is really the extent of the reasons you might want to choose this over its precursor.

This seems to exist to avoid selling you more 3.5mm inputs than you can use at once on an Access Controller, rather than because there is an inherent need for this to exist outside of the Xbox kit.