'Mindblowing' meaning behind PS5 buttons that goes back 32 years to PlayStation's original release

PlayStation gamers are discovering the real meaning behind the face buttons on the PS5 controller, and it’s a design philosophy that has persisted since the original PlayStation release in 1994.

The ‘ABXY’ format for controller face buttons has been a standard of gamepads since the 1990s, with the occasional C and Z buttons also creeping their way in on certain controllers.

Platforms such as Xbox, Nintendo, and Sega consoles have all featured variations of these face buttons, but this was not the case when Sony entered the video game market with the PlayStation in 1994.

The four face buttons of the PlayStation controller; Cross, Circle, Square, Triangle, are completely different from any other controller on the market, and their images are still associated with the brand’s iconography to this day.

The shapes that appear on these buttons aren’t random though, but they actually have a deeper meaning that was explained years ago.

What do the face buttons mean on a PlayStation controller?

In an interview with 1up.com, Sony’s Teiyu Goto explained that the four face buttons on a PlayStation controller represented an action the player could take while playing a game.

Goto explains that the circle and cross buttons represent yes and no for making decisions, while square represents a menu that the player can look through. As for triangle, this relates to a viewpoint, corresponding to a forward direction or character’s head.

“That was also pretty tough," Goto revealed. "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. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that's what I wanted.”

Well, there you have it. Considering the confusion that stems from the ABXY format, where both Nintendo and Xbox feature different layouts for each button, going with coloured shapes seems to have been the right call.

Goto adds that “Getting to use such simple symbols in a design is an extremely rare opportunity, and it was really a stroke of luck to me.

“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 video games, and being able to communicate that is a great thing.”