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?
the history of the xbox layout is fascinating and frustrating. i got a little carried away, so wall of text incoming, sorry! TL;DR the XBox layout is the SEGA six button layout with two buttons chopped off
once upon a time, SEGA released the SG-1000, which had two buttons on it’s joystick. it didn’t have a D-Pad because it came out the very same day as the NES, but future revisions- the SG-1000 II and the Master System- would come with a joypad very similar to Nintendo’s. The numbers were not labelled on the SGs, but on the Master System and SK-3000 computer they were assigned 1 and 2, with 1 corresponding to B (and also labelled start) and 2 corresponding to A.
the Mega Drive/Genesis was backwards compatible with the MS in a few ways, one of which was controllers. the Mega Drive controller is mechanically a Master System controller with two extra buttons, one being Start and the other being… A. despite 1 and 2 mapping to B and A in Nintendoland, SEGA relabelled those buttons B and C on their new controller- plug your MD controller into a Master System and A does nothing! notably the MD also reverses the letter order from right to left to left to right, so it goes A B and C.
i’m not sure what was in the water that generation, because SEGA was not alone in their malarky. the SNES had A and B buttons right where you’d expect them but for NES ports and sequels often used X as B and B as A. despite the fact that perfectly good A and B buttons in the same orientation as the NES II and Gameboy were right there. sorry muscle memory! the Virtual Boy retained the regular A B layout, so one wonders if button position was a contested point for Miyamoto and Yokoi.
but i digress- the MD later tacked a second row of buttons, X Y and Z, to a second row above A B C and this carried over to the Saturn’s default and analog controller. the analog controller was based on the Micomsoft (not Microsoft) XE-1AP, a third party analog controller for the MD and JP microcomputers that retained the Nintendo A and B position and bizarrely has E1 and E2 buttons on the left hand side in a mirrored configuration. the Saturn analog controller however used the familiar MD/Saturn right hand six button array.
so here we are, and SEGA is collaborating with Microsoft (not Micomsoft) on their next generation console. everyone at SEGA had their own pet theory for why the Saturn didn’t take over the world and one that kept coming up is that the controller was too convoluted. the undisputed winner of last generation used the same four-button array used by the SNES, which overtook the MD at the tail end of the generation before. the obvious move would be to mimic that, so despite the C button being the first and main button on the SG-1000, the “real A button,” it and the Z button above them got the boot, creating the Dreamcast controller. when the Dreamcast failed, Microsoft decided they weren’t out of the fight just yet and early plans for their DirectX Box included backwards compatability with the Dreamcast, leading it to have the same button layout but with a size more akin to the Saturn analog and XE-1AP controllers. Nintendo would return to the SNES layout the next generation for the DS and Wii Classic Controller, and things have been steady for the in the two decades since
and that’s why we’re stuck arguing which layout is “right” until the end of time!
Oh, interesting. So Sega basically chopped off two buttons from the six button layout to create the Xbox layout, and after Sega stopped making consoles, Xbox used the same layout.