Viral Twitter Thread Puts Video Game Controllers On Blast, Internet Responds

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Apr 13, 2022 8:00 PM EDT

I stumbled upon this tweet while scrolling through my Twitter feed earlier today and it raises a great point… Why in the heck are the buttons on different consoles' controllers in completely different orders? It would have been easy enough to just standardize the entire thing from the get-go, but no, we need to have different layouts. I'd be willing to wager that you can't tell me off the top of your head (no cheating) where the X button is for the Playstation, Xbox, and Switch. I've been playing Nintendo consoles for 24 years and I couldn't even tell you if it's the top or left.

It would be one thing if it was just the labeling of the button that was different… but the function is completely different too. The 'accept' button on Nintendo consoles is the right-hand button and virtually everything else is the bottom button. (Where is the Playstation's? I have no idea someone please tell me.)

Twitter has the same questions that I do about all of this but we're not any closer to finding a solution. My head canon, for the time being, is that, as one user suggests, manufacturers do it to lock you into their product.