I’m pretty sure that Nintendo created this problem.
They used a/b/x/y on the SNES. The Genesis, it’s direct competitor, had a/b/c.
Then Xbox copied them and Sony copied them… But each had to have a slight variation because Nintendo being Nintendo, they’d get sued into next week…
I definitely blame Nintendo for this one.
First, sony didnt copy them. The symbols on the PS controller had special meanings in Japanese. X = incorrect/cancel O = correct/accept. English localized games reversed them for whatever reason. Also, xbox actually derived its layout from the Dreamcast. MS was partnered with Sega, thus the xbox carries on the Sega legacy.
This is yet another one of the many reasons Steam is amazing. Not only do they have an abstracted layer that allows devs to insert control mappings that adapt to show your controller preference… but even BETTER, they have an option for “neutral” controller button iconography where they just show the relative position of the face buttons in a diamond layout ❖ where the button indicated is a filled circle ● and the others are outlined ○ - rather than letters like ABXY.
So like this :
…instead of “× or A or B” from PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo (respectively).
I still need to physically move my a to b and x to y on my steam deck, it triggers me
Another option, if you want to be able to describe them with words instead of pictures, it naming them after the cardinal directions.
Our brain processes simple symbols objectively faster than words - it’s why when you see a stop sign they all are 🛑s.
Your 🧠 processes 🛑 faster than the word “STOP” which is made up of several letters that you have to first understand, combine, and then remap in your mind internally.
Symbols that represent objects or entire words are a more direct mapping than words composed of multiple letters.
If you’ll permit me to dust off my old game design hat… similar to the principle as to why it was easier to move Mario in any of his 3D games than it was in the original PS1 versions of Resident Evil. Less layers of “mapping.” In Mario, you just angle the stick relative to YOUR view to make Mario go “that” way.
In the original Resident Evil games (and other earlier “3D” perspective games pre-Mario 64), tilting “up” on the Dual-Shock L-stick made your character go “forward” from THEIR perspective, not yours.
Part of the challenge was being able to quickly “translate” that layer of mapping in your mind.
TL;DR - 🛑 > ”STOP”
Me already teaching my 6 year old: “press the L button” “Not left on the dpad” “That’s the left stick button” “No not left on the left stick” “Not the left on the right stick” “that’s ZL!”
And now with this suggestion: “No not the left face button either!”
No, let’s not use cardinal directions anymore.
It was too good for this world.
PlayStation was originally X = B O = A Because in Japan they use a circle to mean the same thing as in English a check mark is used. That is: “yes”, or “correct”. The cross means “no”, or “wrong” in the same context in English and Japanese.
At some point the English language PlayStation games started flipping the meaning of X and O. Not sure why. Maybe to align with Xbox? So eventually Sony changed it in Japan too in order to standardise globally.
Nah. Xbox came out years after the PlayStation. The reason the usage of the ps controller got switched in NA is because they did some studies and people just tried to use ps X-button as the accept button.
Xbox is an abomination amalgamation of everything that came before it: Nintendo, PlayStation, and Sega. Look at those controllers, keeping in mind they came first, and it’s painfully obvious what Microsoft was up to. They can’t even come up with creative names. Hell, they even bought halo. And in an era of free online services, only Microsoft pushed everything into being paid and micro transactions. A LOT of the enshittification is Microsoft’s fault.
Compare to N64, which came before xbox, and know that Microsoft could have made any design they wanted, but didn’t.
American-made PlayStation games were using X for confirm and O for cancel long before the Xbox came out. It’s probably partially because X is blue and O is red; we don’t have cultural context for the symbols, but we do have cultural context for the colors.
Also fascinating is that there was this window of games that tried using various “ok” buttons. Like, I think it was originally the Start button, then some games tried even Triangle or even Square. Conventions are weird.
I just appreciate that Sony put a lot of effort into trying to make their buttons memorable and intuitive. The green Triangle points up, the cancel blue Square is down, the pink Square is left (like where you’d hold a shield), and the red ok/yes Circle is on the right. They made the convention, and haven’t fucked with it at all.
I also appreciate their buttons being labeled and numbered. Like L1 and L2, vs msft’s… Shoulder? Bumper? R1? Trigger? I alternate between shoulder and bumper, but they could have called it Frank and it would have been better. Imagine if they had weirdly given each button proper names.
The only layout I hate is Nintendos. At least with Xbox and PlayStation it’s:
A = X.
B = O.
Y = Triangle
X = SquareWith Nintendo, they turn it all slightly and I absolutely hate it. It’s the only one that I have to retrain my brain/coordination for. When I play a Nintendo game through emulation (fuck Nintendo), I notice immediately when the controls didn’t properly migrate from my other games because now all of the sudden A is going back a menu. -.-
To be fair, they used that setup first. And PS originally copied it, but for some reason switched the functions of X and O in the West. In Japan, those symbols O often used for agree/correct/confirm and vice versa for X. It is weird that X became confirm here .
Retvrn 2 Tradition
There must be a stupid patent about an X button for every position on a game controller.
If controller manufacturers stuck to their original color scheme it would be way less confusing for most, with the color button prompts on games it used to be much easier to use a different console, but all of the newer controllers are turning colorless which makes switching to another one and getting the hang of it much harder.
Big gaming companies. They could made a standard layout, but they are not so clever for this. Every time i play with my Nintendo Pro controller a new game in the PC i get frustrated until i find the proper workaround.
I mean the layout in terms of functions is generally standardised between PS and XBox style controllers (i.e. “back” is the right hand button, “confirm” is the lower one…) it’s just that the buttons have different symbols for those functions across PS and XBox style controllers.
XBox controller and Nintendo are completely inverted. A&B, X&Y.
The funny thing is that when you press Y with Nintendo it reads the top button (it is on the left) and the UI of the game shows wrong position. Its not you press the top button and whatever symbol it has whatever, reads that you pressed the top button, NO. You press the top button it reads the left and vice versa. Same with A&B.
Imagine one company puts another controller on the market with same symbols with PS but inverted and the system reads the symbols, not the positions.
Edit: I don’t know if this happens only with Steam or outside Steam. I only know it is frustrating until i find a way to fix it in every game a start.
I have, and always will, maintain that the Xbox controller button layout is the only one that makes any sense to me.
which parts of Xbox/PlayStation controller layouts don’t match? aren’t functions the same, just symbols different?
I have, and always will, maintain that the Xbox controller is trash and PlayStation is clearly superior. never have I used an Xbox controller and thought “yeah this sensitivity curve of nothingnothingnothingEVERYTHING” makes sense
The PlayStation one makes sense to me too but that’s probably cause I grew up with a PS2. Now the switch on the other hand, that scheme is a fucking abomination. I actually use a remapped Xbox controller when I play mine.
It’s been done.
Man, when this shit hit the streets I thought there was no way this controller wouldn’t suck, but turned out to be a great layout.
In my experience, you almost never used the D-pad and C-stick.
That made it functionally in line with PS, and not terribly difficult to adapt into.
I do think the central A with surrounding B, X, and Y buttons was worse than the balanced design of PS/XBox. Just not enough to lose sleep over
I like this button layout. If one of the face buttons is gonna be used more than all the others, why shouldn’t it be bigger?
It also has the advantage that nearly every button is a completely different size or shape. Making it easier to use if you have trouble knowing where your fingers are without looking.
button prompts can be recognizable by silhouette
Is this not recognizible enough?
No, because Zelda has unironically one of the worst examples of button layouts due to them being different to other games for seemingly no reason.
Why is sprint the bottom face button instead of right trigger? Why is the top face button jump?
Even basic things like running and jumping are so difficult and unintuitive. So many actions are all tied to the badly placed jump button with no prompts given, like shield surfing and triggering flurry rushes.
No, look. The controls in BOTW/TOTK are really simple. The sprint/go fast button is always B. Unless you’re on a horse - then it’s A.
Or if you’re swimming or climbing, because then it’s X.
I’m not going to take a scientific approach, botw is one of the most awkward games to learn controls imo. I have so many clips of dismounting, self detonating, throwing my weapon. I’m not bad at games, this game just super confuses my gamer muscles. Bruh
Stuff like this is the only part I hated about red dead 2.
None of that has anything to do with the readability of the button prompt
Right, but the switch also has the directional buttons on the left side. They are also round and oriented the same way and are not used for moving.
So no. Even that is not perfectly readable on the switch.
yeah but it has to be given with a silhouette of the others with it, whereas the other layout allows them to be recognizable on their own.
Nobody’s been brave enough to name the buttons N(orth), S(outh), E(ast), and W(est).
How about 12, 3, 6 and 9?
The Duke has entered the chat
You mean 11, 2, 5, and 8? ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ
I’m old enough to remember this and I approve of your suggestion. But tbh i’d also be fine with 10, 1, 4 and 7.
I actually started with 10 initially. But it was bugging me so I went and overlaid a clock onto the face buttons. 11 and 5 are bang-on, the other two are closer to 2:30 and 7:30 lol.
Yas Queen.
The only correct controller.
Thanks for waking memories! I had one of these. Highly modded, with a modchip, other OS and a large HDD for my game backups. I could also watch videos etc. Most fun I had with a console. This was the pinnacle IMHO. The next gen started with the enshittification process.
Looks like a fat batarang
Absolute Batarang
How about a regular boomerang?
This one makes me horny
This is what happens when you let the guys at Area 51 into the design team
Wouldn’t mind if they hired those guys for the next playstation tbh lol
It would be weird to have buttons changing position to face north all the time
It really fucks with me when I plug in my steam deck to the TV and use my PS5 controller to play.
I don’t even read button prompts.
Most games have the same functions on the same positions. It’s only weird when they do shit like make R2 the sprint button. Like, what the absolute fuck is that shit?
Except accept/cancel is sometimes switched.
As a PC gamer that doesn’t often use a controller. I often have to enter menus twice. Once to just exit it, and another to accept whatever is the first entry.
Specially when emulating old Nintendo games, which don’t say which button is which.
On nintendo and older PS games, or Japanese releases of PS games, the accept button is the one to the right.
Take Gameboy for example. The A button is to the right of B.
when they do shit like make R2 the sprint button
Emulating Switch I realized how much I love the button prompts. Since the controller could be rotated they just filled in the button to press.
Until you go to your inventory in TOTK and it says “press Y to sort items” and I always press X instead cuz 2 decades of Xbox Controllers.
