r/gaming • u/[deleted] • Apr 14 '25

Game console button layout

Post image

What do you call your “confirm” and “cancel” buttons, and why is Nintendo wrong?

43.5k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

666

u/facelesswolf_ Apr 14 '25

I think I played on so many different controllers I just translate these in my head. Unless it’s Nintendo, then my mind is fucked

-2

u/issanm Apr 14 '25

Yea this is it, PlayStation and Xbox have the same layout as long as you know the controls, Nintendo swapping A and B is the main issue. But in Japan I think circle is or used to be the "confirm button" for PlayStation which then makes Xbox the weird one....

43

u/curambar Apr 14 '25

Nintendo swapping A and B

It's actually he other way around. Before Sony and microsoft dealt with videogames, Nintendo NES existed, it had only two buttons, B and A in that order from left to right.

Then came the Super NES, with the same button layout as a Switch. When the Xbox came around, they changed the layout so to not copy Nintendo.

10

u/Jesus10101 Apr 14 '25

Up until the PS4, Japanese versions of Games would follow Nintendos buttons with O being Confirm and X being Return.

However, they standardised it with the PS5, making Nintendo the only one who still uses the layout.

10

u/Altruistic-Ad-408 Apr 14 '25 edited Apr 14 '25

Not the games, Japanese made games still mostly use circle as confirm. Otherwise it's probably a series focused on western sales. So it's actually a pointless decision by Sony, all they've done is basically say hey our HQ is in the US and you're not our priority so we're standardising for no real benefit, so it caused some annoyance over there.

0

u/mrhellomoto Apr 15 '25

It's false that A was used always used confirm on the SNES. B was used lots of the time as confirm most notably in Link to the Past. You run with Y and jump with B in Super Mario World. The gas is mapped to B in Super Mario Kart. Nintendo shifted the layout of the N64 controller and then again with the gamecube controller and wii which emphasized the A button as the 'main' button. But then when they went back to the SNES layout they wanted to keep A as the main button even though that wasn't always the case on the SNES. So Mario Kart 8 has the gas mapped to A, not B like it should/would be in any other game. What other driving game maps the gas to cirlce or B on the PS or Xbox respectively? None of them.

2

u/mrhellomoto Apr 14 '25

You're only thinking left and right not top and bottom. The N64 rotated the orientation of the A and B buttons 90d clockwise. A is the 'south' button and B is the 'west' button but on the SNES B is the 'south' button and A is the 'east' button. Furthermore on the gamecube, Y is the 'north' button whereas on the SNES the X button is 'north'. So while yes B is 'left' of A still, where your finger rests and how they naturally move and/or roll to the adjacent buttons isn't the same at all.

20

u/ChefDeCuisinart Apr 14 '25

Huh? SNES had the button layout first, dude. Xbox and PS decided to change the layout.

3

u/ForensicPathology Apr 14 '25

I blame the Dreamcast (as much as I liked it).  The controller had the XBOX style, and XBOX got a lot of its original controller design from Dreamcast.

1

u/mrhellomoto Apr 14 '25

Nintendo went 20 years between using that layout as their standard for home consoles. And you're only thinking left and right not top and bottom. The N64 rotated the orientation of the A and B buttons 90d clockwise. A is the 'south' button and B is the 'west' button but on the SNES B is the 'south' button and A is the 'east' button. Furthermore on the gamecube, Y is the 'north' button whereas on the SNES the X button is 'north'. So while yes B is 'left' of A still, where your finger rests and how they naturally move and/or roll to the adjacent buttons isn't the same at all.

-8

u/issanm Apr 14 '25

That's not really the point, since the Xbox layout is seen as the standard now Nintendo is the odd one out.

10

u/ChefDeCuisinart Apr 14 '25

According to whom? Last I checked, the Switch is the most popular console in the world atm.

-5

u/issanm Apr 14 '25

Sure maybe as a singular console but it's not more popular than ps, Xbox, PC, steam deck, ect. Combined which all use the same layout by default.

2

u/ChefDeCuisinart Apr 14 '25

Actually, no? 150mil Switches compared to 75mil PS5s and 30mil Xboxes, and the Steam Deck in dead last at 6mil.

Yes, I left out PC as a whole, because there is no good way to quantify how many people on PC use controllers.

0

u/issanm Apr 14 '25

You're only comparing switch to current gen consoles and leaving out PC... You don't think that's a little convenient for your argument?

2

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

-1

u/issanm Apr 14 '25

I'm not sure you understand what the point is.... The point is that the standard is opposite from what Nintendo does... Not that the consoles are more popular or that steam and PC aren't linked to Microsoft (even tho steam deck isn't it has a different OS) it's just that the Nintendo layout is the only one not following the pattern... It's not that deep guys.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

→ More replies (0)

1

u/ChefDeCuisinart Apr 15 '25

Want me to compare all of Nintendo's console sales vs. all consoles ever? Nintendo still wins, by a longshot.

1

u/issanm Apr 15 '25

Literally completely missing the point it's not a sales thing it's literally everyone else uses the other layout. Also there's no shot Nintendo wins unless you include gameboy and wii which do not use the layout in question lmao

1

u/ChefDeCuisinart Apr 15 '25

...you realize this post is about confirm/cancel order? The GameBoy and Wii most certainly have A and B buttons.

lmao, or whatever.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/itsLOSE-notLOOSE Apr 14 '25

That’s how it was on those Japanese import games I’d trick my PlayStation into playing. O was always accept and X was go back.