Game on! Sony employee makes custom PlayStation controller for gamer with cerebral palsy

[Peter Byrne/Facebook/Peter Byrne]

A Sony PlayStation employee went the extra mile when he created a special controller for an avid gamer with cerebral palsy.

Peter Byrne is a big fan of video games, so he was excited to try out his new PlayStation 4. But that excitement turned to disappointment when the New Jersey resident tried to use the controller. Byrne, who has cerebral palsy, found that the design of the new controller made it extremely challenging to play.

“When I play, I would hit the touchpad with my hand,” Byrne told News 12 New Jersey. “It’s very sensitive…it would pause the game.”

After numerous frustrated attempts, two weeks ago Byrne decided to write an email to Sony explaining his issues with the controller. The very next day, Byrne received an email from a man named Alex Nawabi. Though Nawabi was an employee of PlayStation, he promised to look into the issue personally, spending 10 hours of labour and ordering extra parts to create a modified controller.

Nawabi sent him an email a few days later saying that he hadn’t been able to solve the problem, but that PlayStation was going to send a box of goodies anyways.

The box arrived last Tuesday, and inside was a modified controller — Nawabi had kept it a secret so that it would be a surprise. The box also contained the following letter from Nawabi:

[Letter from Alex Nawabi to Peter Byrne/Facebook/Peter Byrne]

Byrne was so thrilled with his new controllers — Nawabi has since sent him a second spare — that he decided to post something to Facebook about the incident:

“I received that box today and inside was the modified controller especially made for me and this letter. I honestly got choked up reading the letter as I did not expect anything like this to happen. Mr. Nawabi really cared about my situation and did this on his own time to make my experience better. I honestly can’t thank him enough for everything he did for me. Thank you Mr. Nawabi it really means a lot too me!”

[The modified controller/Facebook/Peter Byrne]

Since then, the story has been reported in media around the world, prompting this response, on Facebook, from Nawabi:

“Seems like the cats out of the bag and I cant halt the momentum. Really didnt expect this. Thank you all for the kind words. I’m eternally grateful. Seeing how happy he is, and how stoked his mom got, has me in tears.”