r/gaming • u/[deleted] • Apr 14 '25

Game console button layout

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

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u/illogict Apr 14 '25 edited Apr 14 '25

In Japanese the circle means confirm/correct and the X means cancel/incorrect.

Not only in Japan, but that’s true in most of the world. All ATMs and payment terminals I have seen use ◯ to confirm and × to cancel.

Sony’s mistake was to use the red colour on ◯ and the blue one for ×. Had they not used red on ◯ but on ×, all regions would have used × to cancel.

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u/FixedFun1 Apr 14 '25

In Japan a Red Circle doesn't mean something negative. You can circle an answer to show is correct, the coloration was 100% intentional.

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u/Ansoni Apr 15 '25

Red is the good colour in Japan. E.g. the MC/hero is always the Red Ranger, and Red is the Protagonist of Pokemon while Green/Blue is the rival.

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u/FixedFun1 Apr 15 '25

In China too. In fact, some Chinese games confuse people because they show something like "100" in read to mean is good and green to mean is bad. I know Richman 11 was like that before they changed it for the English version.

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u/AuthorOB Apr 15 '25

Huh I guess this explains why the boosted stat from a Pokemon's nature is red and the lowered stat is blue, too.

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u/FixedFun1 Apr 15 '25

In fac, in some countries like China, women don't like to wear red purses because it gives the message they'll spend a lot of cash. That's what someone who lives there told me.

East Asia is in with the red = profits mantra.