DualShock designer reveals meaning of shape buttons, have absolutely nothing to do with crop circles

The man behind the iconic pad comes clean over the famous shapes

Words: on August 26, 2010
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Have you ever wondered what the face buttons on the PlayStation DualShock pads stand for? Of course you haven't. You actually have a life. But for all four gamers out there with miserable enough existences to ponder such mysteries, take your head out of that gas oven, because Teiyu Goto (designer of all three PlayStation consoles and their pads) has just revealed all in an interview with Famitsu...

In a lengthy discussion with the legendary Japanese games mag, Goto states: "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 icons or symbols, and I came up with the triangle-circle-X-square combination immediately afterward."

"I gave each symbol a meaning and a color."

"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."

So well done, Mr. Goto. You really are a talented son of a bitch.

Of course, he's also the man that came up with this...


Above: Mick Dundee called. He wants his shit controller back

26 Aug, 2010

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Platforms:

PS3, PS2, PC

Topics:

Sony

31 Comments
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  • philipshaw

    philipshaw  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    Boomerang controller would have been better than sixaxis
    Reply
  • pin316

    pin316  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    you know that if someone was ridiculously smart at rocksteady, they would try and develop a controller shell for the boomerang controller to release in a super-special edition of Arkham City...The PS Batarang!
    Reply
  • EnragedTortoise1

    EnragedTortoise1  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    Circle and X's uses are switched in most Japanese games...
    which explains what he said.
    Reply
  • Darkhawk

    Darkhawk  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    Haha "O" and "X" as yes and no. You hear that, stupid American designers?
    ... I remember the first time I played Metal Gear, and having to get used to the fact that Triangle wasn't the cancel button.

    reC: accumulation squate (Funnily enough, the first word has a superscript number, for a footnote)
    Reply
  • playoldgames

    playoldgames  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    Just a thought about the pics corresponding to the last two buttons - don't the Japanese usually use O when you've done something right and X when you've got it wrong?

    Didn't take me shooting too many wrong targets in Point Blank to work that out...
    Reply
  • crumbdunky

    crumbdunky  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    My matte used the prototype PS3 "boomerang" controller as a tester while at Uni exchange in Osaka and still says it was the bset and most comfy pad he ever used, that the added, erm, length, meant all hand sizes were comfy. He's still gutted it got so mercilessly panned by the western media that they dropped it. I think a limited run, spec ed with aboriginal theme PS3 is in order containing one or two of these beauts. I wanna try one!

    BTW, the games he used to test were not PS3 games but PS2 ones and a sixaxis tech demo-all on what I assume was a review style SKU. The PS2 games? GOW2, DMC3, Socom NS, Black, SotC and Ratchet-no jrpgs and a smattering if first, second and third party titles across the range if games(don't remember him saying if there was an RTS or dedicated fighter-though I have a feeling he might have mentioned Tekken and GG). He was always getting tester jobs out there-maybe because of his, then, age and position as a westerner living in Japan and studying game programming?

    Either that or he's full of it! Then again he DOES now work for R*!
    Reply
  • SWTerrell

    SWTerrell  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    In American games, where X is yes and O in no, just think of the X as a crosshair on what you want, and the O as a group of people trying to avoid something in the center. That way it (kind of) makes sense!
    Reply
  • 510BrotherPanda

    510BrotherPanda  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    That explains why FF7 and some of the other PSX games I downloaded on my PSN use "o" as okay....
    Reply
  • DrRock

    DrRock  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    I'm so glad that controller never made it into production. That is one of the ugliest looking controllers.
    I get the desire to try it out though, but for me I have no interest in using it other than to throw it outside and pray it never comes back.
    Reply
  • NanoElite666

    NanoElite666  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    Interesting.

    And for all the flak the original PS3 controller gets, I still can't help buy want to get my hands on it to at least see how it feels to use, and if it's really all that different than using a regular DualShock.
    Reply
  • garnsr

    garnsr  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    This still doesn't explain why Japanese games like Bayonetta use the wrong buttons for actions that every other similar game that's made in the West have agreed should be on certain other buttons. And it just feels wrong to move your thumb all the way to circle to accept, which is the most common answer you use.
    Reply
  • Syncmaster

    Syncmaster  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    ohhh thats why in most japanese games circle select things and X cancels it! the opposite of western games. I wondered that for like, 12 years, the world makes sense now! thanks GR!!!
    Reply
  • CreeplyTuna

    CreeplyTuna  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    am i the only one who wants to try the boomarang lookin conteroller? just to know what it feels like
    Reply
  • Lionzest7

    Lionzest7  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    now I have plenty of stupid trivia to stump my friends. Like they'd even care.
    Reply
  • Ensoul

    Ensoul  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    @RazielArcanum: Yes exactly.

    It's weird how every separate console has to do the button labeling all different; is it a copyright thing? I suppose it honestly doesn't matter after you've memorized the layout. I do remember the playing NFL 2K1 specifically and having a hard time because I would try to throw to an open receiver marked "A" and in inadvertently hit "B". Damn my years of Super Nes.
    Reply
  • Fortunate34

    Fortunate34  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    Yeah, I miss that controller look. But I'm glad they did change it. I wish they came out with a "limited edition" PS3 boomerang-- I mean controller.
    Reply
  • Hydrohs

    Hydrohs  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    @RazielArcanum Most Japanese games use Circle as confirm and X and back. They're just switched around when localized it seems.
    Reply
  • grim08

    grim08  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    In all my years of playstation gaming, I never knew this. How?
    Reply
  • Clovin64

    Clovin64  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    Erm...I've never really wondered about this, but its nice to know anyway. I did used to wonder if the circle button was red or orange.
    Reply
  • shamrock77

    shamrock77  - 1 year, 5 months ago  - Report

    thats not a controllah....THIS is a controllah! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
    Reply
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