The PlayStation 5 in Japan Will Swap The Use of X and Circle Buttons
However, the button usage will confusingly remain the same for games.
Sony will swap the use of X and Circle buttons on Japanese PlayStation 5 consoles, shifting towards the West’s tradition of using the X button to confirm actions and Circle to cancel. Although this has been the basic interface of Sony’s console for 25 years, this marks the first time for Japanese users, who have historically used X to cancel and Circle to confirm.
According to Famitsu, the Japanese versions of the games will still use the previous definitions of the X and Circle buttons, contradictory to how the buttons will now function on the PlayStation interface. “Wow, this is big news for UI/UX,” Famitsu editor Kenji Iguchi tweeted yesterday. “Muscle memory frustration for the nearly 10 million PS users in Japan coming up.”
Iguchi continued: “In Japan, the ‘Circle = Good, OK, Correct’ symbolism has been common knowledge for many decades. When designing the original PlayStation controller, it was likely that the placement of the O/X were hence made to match the Super Famicom’s A/B, and were utilized similarly.”
The console is only five weeks away from debuting in Japan, but now that Japanese outlets have begun reviewing early units, more details about the console have been surfacing. For example, the upcoming PlayStation 5 is expected to run quietly in comparison to the PlayStation 4.
In related news, here’s how big the upcoming PlayStation 5 is expected to be.
In Japan, the “Circle = Good, OK, Correct” symbolism has been common knowledge for many decades. When designing the original PlayStation controller, it was likely that the placement of the O/X were hence made to match the Super Famicom’s A/B, and were utilized similarly.
— Kenji Iguchi (@needle_e) October 4, 2020
