Based on my searches, I could only find 3* controllers that have this feature (and interestingly, they all do it differently). There’s the new 8BitDo Pro 3, where the face buttons are magnetic, the GameSir Supernova, where you have to remove the faceplate to swap the buttons, and the GameSir Tarantula Pro/T3 Pro, where there’s a motor that swaps the ABXY layout.
This seems like a pretty simple feature that would be really useful for multiplatform controllers. Lots of controllers advertise that they work with PC, Xbox, Switch, Android, etc., but very few of them give you the option to physically swap the ABXY layout. They usually have one layout or the other. I would get not having these features on a really budget controller, but there are some controllers that are really expensive and don’t have this neat little button swap thing (instead opting for gimmicky things like a screen)
edit: * There’s actually 4**, I forgot about the Nyxi Flexi!
edit 2: ** Nope, it’s five***, the Gulikit KK3 Max has replaceable button caps! Very cool!
edit 3: *** Actually, the older KK2 Pro also seems to have this feature too, as well as a few other older Gulikit controllers, so I guess it’s >6? That’s cool. With four different companies (GuliKit, 8BitDo, GameSir, and Nyxi) offering at least one controller with this feature, I guess it’s not as rare as I thought. Who knew?
Personally, I’d prefer if games and such would use universal face button glyphs on-screen.
I’ve switched back and forth between Xbox, Nintendo, and PlayStation controllers so much that I really don’t have a mental map of which button is which, and in game I’m usually not looking at my controller to be able to tell.
Press the X button.
Wait am I playing PlayStation or Xbox or Nintendo.
It’s weird but they are all different. I’ve never had an issue where I see an Xbox X and hit the PS X. Normally if a game wants X(PS Flavour) the X itself is blue, potentially with a black circle around it. If a game shows you an X(Xbox Flavour) it shows a blue circle with a different blue X inside. Nintendo generally just shows a top button glyph or if they do show the X it’s usually monochrome, except for Americana flavoured SNES which was just top purple and since GC had the vertical kidney bean X… Well, Nintendo only recently became a problem I suppose.
So, basically, the in-game glyphs do differentiate themselves.
Yeah glyphs ftw. Helps newbies not have to look down, just see position of button, and helps with 3rd party controllers too.
Also will save the devs a couple of quid with porting
At least playstation uses a visually distinct set of symbols so you can’t confuse them with the other two. I think it’s really annoying that Xbox and Nintendo both use ABXY, but swapped for some reason. I grew up with Nintendo, so that layout makes “more sense” to me than the unfamiliar Xbox layout, but yeah, I would prefer either a universal layout (maybe neither ABXY or the shapes, perhaps something different that everyone could agree on? Because if you chose the Xbox layout, fans of the Nintendo layout would get mad and vice versa)
What should that universal layout be though? Maybe the cardinal directions, ESNW? Or perhaps something unique like IJKL? Or maybe the starting letters of colours (RGBA? Transparent button would be cool. CMYK? Printer ink buttons!) Or perhaps not letters, maybe symbols? Like mountain (jagged teeth), sea (wavy line), wind (swirly line), and stone (filled in circle)? Or punch, kick, special move (maybe energy blast), and different special move (maybe healing)?
Just a picture of 3 of the 4 buttons with one highlighted (e.g. left/right with bottom highlighted) would be simple enough.
This is what Switch UI does, in order to accomodate sideways JoyCons.
That’s basically what I had in mind. Steam has this as an option for the big picture mode UI and I like it a lot.
I always assumed Nintendo’s buttons are that way round because Japanese is read right-to-left.
The symbols thing already exists though: that’s PlayStation. It’s well documented that the four symbols even had original meanings: a square for menus, a triangle to represent a camera’s FOV, and O/X for yes/no, respectively.
You’ve got to admit it’s pretty funny that we’ve whittled the field down to three console manufacturers and they all put the ‘X’ button in a different place.
well if you make the playstation layout the universal layout both Xbox and Nintendo layout fans will hate you. Interesting the PS symbols had actual meanings rather than being somewhat arbitrary like with ABXY (though you could argue A means accept/action and B means back)
I think the nintendo layout looks like it makes more sense since it’s AB XY when you read top to bottom, whereas with Xbox layout it’s left-to-right but also bottom-to-top. Idk, I guess it’s all just preference (+ the fact I grew up with nintendo so there is certainly a bias towards that layout)
That’s right, circle was accept because drawing a circle in Japanese is their equivalent to a tick, x is cancel like a cross, I think the square was supposed to look like a piece of paper, I can’t remember what the triangle symbolised.
someone said that triangle used to mean FOV (switching between first person and third person, for example))
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