As an outsider to all of this*, I never thought it was "prohibitively expensive," but just always thought that something like providing a person with certain disabilities the opportunity to play games is just going to be at a cost that isn't cheap. Comparing to the already existing solutions, the XAC is,
at least from what I assumed and remember from seeing people posting ablegamer parts or whatever the company is named, is a cheaper solution.
People have been posting the "65 dollar button" since this thing was revealed (
actually, I think I remember seeing people angrily post about a 30 dollar button back when this was shown off first), but I've always taken it as these are things that need to be extra durable to hold up, and they're not simply buttons that would be pressed with the tip of a thumb, but a button that would be slapped, punched, or otherwise "smashed" especially with the excitement of a video game on the line. I have no actual experience with these buttons though, so I'm only going on assumptions.
I don't think I will ever
not be happy when I think about the XAC though. I mean, being stuck in a hospital for months at a time sucks when you've got nothing to look forward to except getting your therapy done so you can go back and sit in your room some more and do nothing. I think helping disabled people be able to take their minds off the "grind" they might be living with is fantastic.
*
I don't need an XAC, but I do suffer from hemiparesis. It used to be worse, as my left arm still like... "seizes" up when I try to do delicate things with my left hand (why my guitars are now wall ornaments) and I've literally thrown controllers behind me in the past accidentally (and that was with a Final Fantasy game!). Worst I have it now is that I basically twist my hand around the left analog stick rather than solely using my thumb to keep my left arm from getting sore.
It's ridiculously cheap. I've worked with disabled gamers that had custom setups for them that cost over 3000$ freakin dollars.
Good God...