Teiyu Goto, the designer behind the original PlayStation controller, has shed light on the straightforward meanings behind its buttons.
Before delving into the intricacies of the PS5 controller’s hidden easter eggs, it’s worth revisiting the story of the original PlayStation controller.
While most gamers associate the controller buttons with actions like jumping, canceling, interacting, and punching, their original symbolism was quite different.
On Twitter, the video game news account Genki reminded followers of the initial meanings of the PlayStation symbols as articulated by Teiyu Goto, the original designer, with the post tagged #PlayStation30thAnniversary.
The message reads: “X – No,” “○ – Yes,” “△ – Viewpoint (head/direction),” and “□ – Piece of Paper (menu/documents).”
In a Famitsu Magazine interview, shared by PSU, Goto elaborated on his design choices for the PlayStation controller.
Goto explained, “Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colors to the buttons. We wanted something simple to remember, which is why we went with iconic or symbols, and I came up with the triangle-circle-X-square combination immediately afterward.”
He continued, “I gave each symbol a meaning and a colour. The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one’s head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle and X represent ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively.”
“People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that’s what I wanted,” he noted.
This revelation quickly sparked conversations on social media.
One Twitter user expressed surprise, saying, “I actually never knew this 🙂 thank you for sharing.”
Another commented, “Always thought this was a cool detail of design.”
A third user remarked, “You know that makes a lot of sense lmao.”
“This does put stuff in perspective. I can almost feel myself playing the classic games w/ these setups. But did square and triangle change at some point? Triangle is the menu button in so many jrpgs,” a fourth wondered.
A fifth person added, “Really wish they would revert back to the circle as YES and X as no. I build muscle memory playing PlayStation and then it’s a pain to play Nintendo Switch for a couple hours until I get used to it again.”