PlayStation designer explains all

By Ellie Gibson Published 26 August, 2010

Reveals thinking behind the buttons.

PlayStation hardware designer Teiyu Goto has revealed some of the thinking which went into the concept for the original console.

Speaking to Famitsu magazine (as translated by 1UP), he explained it took a bit of work to convince Sony management that putting grips on the controller was a good idea. Once that was done, he had to work out what symbols to put on the buttons.

"Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colors to the buttons," said Goto.

"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."

Once again, the suits tried to stand in Goto's way: "People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that's what I wanted."

But, of course, Goto won the day. "Getting to use such simple symbols in a design is an extremely rare opportunity, and it was really a stroke of luck to me," he said.

"When you think of the Madonna in painting, most people come up with the same image of the same woman in their minds. In a similar way, the combination of those simple symbols has come to represent both the PlayStation and the fun of videogames, and being able to communicate that is a great thing."

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Zomoniac #1 2 years ago

    Well, I like the symbols. They were a great marketing tool. Though I always thought it odd that invariably games developed in Japan used circle for next and cross for back, and all western games were the other way round.

  • Dr.Mott #2 2 years ago

    Except Metal Gear Solid, which made things very confusing.

  • MerricK #3 2 years ago

    Eurogamer at news fail shock.

    We'll be back at 13:00 with a news update

    / awaits negs

  • JohnnyWashnGo #4 2 years ago

    I really hate how Japanese games generally use O for correct and X for incorrect in games and how in the west we tend to use X for correct and O for incorrect.

    This problem gives me a real headache when using, for example, a Japanese PSP system. The OS obvious wants me to use O to select an option and X to cancel but when you pop in a game from the States or UK, generally, they want you to press X to select and option or confirm something and leave O for cancelling.

    Has anybody else had this issue bug them?

    It confuses my hands :(

  • frankfurter209 #5 2 years ago

    ABXY is the just the standard and I always kinda resented the shapes on Dual Shocks.

  • kestral #6 2 years ago

    obviously now we know all western games will have to be reissued with the correct controls :p
    Edited by kestral at 26/08/10 @ 09:06

  • Zomoniac #7 2 years ago

    ABXY is the just the standard and I always kinda resented the shapes on Dual Shocks.

    The letters themselves may have been standard, but it was nice not having the confusion of positioning given that Nintendo decided to put the alphabet backwards whilst Sega did it forwards.

  • Branoic #8 2 years ago

    Did he just compare his controller design to the mother of Christ?

  • DoctorFouad #9 2 years ago

    interesting info for the origin of playstation revolutionary controllers...I remember the first days of playstation, the controller felt very solid, very ergonomic and very different a huge step forward from megadrive/snes controllers...

  • loveless #10 2 years ago

    I've always found the symbols confusing - or rather, that it takes more effort to remember which button is which colour / symbol.

    AB / XY I find much quicker, as there is an inherent order in the way the buttons are placed.

  • schnide #11 2 years ago

    Some games use X and O and some use O and X?!

    WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?

  • Zomoniac #12 2 years ago

    AB / XY I find much quicker, as there is an inherent order in the way the buttons are placed.

    There is on a DC/Xbox pad (XY/AB). But the SNES pad was YX/BA and the Cube pad was BA/YX. They all use the same letters but there's no consistency.

  • Synthesis #13 2 years ago

    You didn't put six buttons on the controller though did you, nor did you think to put a remotely useful d-pad on it either!

  • OnlyMe #14 2 years ago

    O = one line = button 1
    X = two lines = button 2
    triangle = three lines = button 3
    square = four lines = button 4

  • Arwin #15 2 years ago

    It was a brilliant piece of design. But his bosses were right though, the symbols are mixed up. The blue circle should have been on the bottom and red cross on the right. This probably comes from a cultural difference, and resulted in these buttons being mixed up in the U.S. / E.U., and Japan.

    Other than that though, perfect. But it's a shame that we now use a red cross to select something and a blue circle.

  • ParanoidZombie #16 2 years ago

    IMO, it's not about AB/XY, it's green/red/blue/Yellow. If you're playing with someone not familiar with a controller, telling her/him to "press green" is much more easily understood than saying "press X" or "press A".

  • Zebula77 #17 2 years ago

    @JohnnyWashnGo: Hehe, I had the same problem for years. I used to import the Winning Eleven games (the Japanese versions of the PES games) and they had the same O for yes and X for no.

    That really fucked my mind over the first couple of hours upon playing those games.

  • Oceadge #18 2 years ago

    @JohnnyWashnGo: If you are in Japan and don't speak Japanese and people there who don't speak English are trying to communicate a Yes or a No to you they don't nod or shake their heads as we might but either draw a circle on the palm of their hand or make a circle shape with their thumb & index finger to represent a Yes and cross their two index fingers to represent a No. At least that's what I've experienced anyway.

  • HandOfBeadle #19 2 years ago

    The most significant thing about the PS control layout is that it's independent of alphabet or language. It's universal and therefore inclusive. Being shapes rather than following the conventional ABXY also meant it was more enigmatic and less perfunctory, which in combination with only the outline of the shape being coloured rather than the whole button gave it part of the cool, more grown-up image the PS had going for it compared to its' rivals.

    Obviously the shoulder buttons are the exception but even the Start and Select buttons are a right-pointing triangle (like the standard Play sign on a VCR or DVD player) and a rectangle.

  • fizzyfish #20 2 years ago

    I remember thinking "publishers are going to have fun working out how to type those symbols for magazines and manuals".

    Oh, and probably "the death of memorable cheat codes". DULLARD, anyone?

  • JensonJet #21 2 years ago

    I'm just glad it was a Japanese designer and company who put handles on pads first. Had Microsoft have done that, no one else would have got the chance.

  • sadakos_fury #22 2 years ago

    @fizzyfish
    Flawless victory.

  • Paulie_P #23 2 years ago

    We need to get Dan Brown to tell us the secret cult meanings that these symbols represent.

  • Wyrm #24 2 years ago

    They should have used the Led Zeppelin symbols instead.

  • Lamb #25 2 years ago

    @JohnnyWashnGo I agree the X and O mix up is excessively annoying. Especially when you are trying to start a game with a series of sub menus and all it does is take you back to the start screen.