Random factoid: Way back in the early PlayStation days, the O button was the default “accept/enter” buton, and the X was the “cancel/back” button, because that aligned with the national consensus of O = correct/confirm, and X = incorrect/cancel in Japan. But when the console was introduced in North America and Europe, they started remapping the X and O to align with other western consoles using X, like the Xbox. That said, I distinctly remember early PS1 games being a sort of wild west of which button would be confirm, so I suspect it was also done in response to western gamers struggling to adapt.
other way around. the xbox was five years after the playstation, and used A for confirm, like nintendo’s consoles. the snes has A on the right, so the PS has O on the right. but when they released in europe, they chose to use X for confirm, which is on the bottom. so the xbox has A on the bottom.
This. And as far as I know, PS still has that split between Japan and international release. It’s probably been about a decade, but the last time I played an import JP PS game, O was still confirm, X was still cancel.
Yep! The PS5 was the first console to standardise X as confirm in all regions. Can’t say whether the game devs followed suit, though I’d imagine Sony has some licensing clause to force compliance on that.
On the Switch, the buttons aren’t just relabelled, their function is swapped, too.
Random factoid: Way back in the early PlayStation days, the O button was the default “accept/enter” buton, and the X was the “cancel/back” button, because that aligned with the national consensus of O = correct/confirm, and X = incorrect/cancel in Japan. But when the console was introduced in North America and Europe, they started remapping the X and O to align with other western consoles using X, like the Xbox. That said, I distinctly remember early PS1 games being a sort of wild west of which button would be confirm, so I suspect it was also done in response to western gamers struggling to adapt.
other way around. the xbox was five years after the playstation, and used A for confirm, like nintendo’s consoles. the snes has A on the right, so the PS has O on the right. but when they released in europe, they chose to use X for confirm, which is on the bottom. so the xbox has A on the bottom.
This. And as far as I know, PS still has that split between Japan and international release. It’s probably been about a decade, but the last time I played an import JP PS game, O was still confirm, X was still cancel.
Yep! The PS5 was the first console to standardise X as confirm in all regions. Can’t say whether the game devs followed suit, though I’d imagine Sony has some licensing clause to force compliance on that.
Thanks! Guess the stuff I read 20+ years ago got a little jumbled in long-term storage.
it happens. it’s not one of those things that’s important to keep around.