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?

  • missingno@fedia.io
    3·
    1 day ago

    I don’t look down at my controller to read the button labels. Swapping them physically makes no sense to me, more moving parts to complicate manufacturing for a feature that I’m never going to look down at.

    I use a black 8BitDo Pro 2, dark enough that the button labels that technically exist aren’t readable. Looks nicer that way, don’t need 'em.

    I grew up a Nintendo kid, that’s what’s ingrained in my head, and it is a bit of a nuisance sometimes that everything on PC expects Xbox layout. But I just have it remapped in software, problem solved, no reason why I would need to physically move the buttons in hardware.

    • sbird@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      fair enough. Someone should make a controller with no labels at all and they could just be different colours. I agree with the latter point, I always associate A with the right button, X with the top button.