Why does the PlayStation button icon have a square, triangle, X and O?

One of the things that the most memorable gamers of the legendary Playstation system is the famous handle with four icons attached - square, triangle, X and O. However, not everyone fully understand the meaning or history of these symbols.

Back in the past, 1993, the time when legendary games like Donkey Kong on the system dominated the game market with millions of players. At that time, Nintendo also researched and developed a gaming system to 'occupy' part of this extremely lucrative land.

Why does the PlayStation button icon have a square, triangle, X and O? Picture 1

Bamepad on the game console was originally designed to be simple and easy to remember with 2 buttons on the right, 4 navigation buttons on the left and middle buttons.

When Nintendo released the Super Nintendo system, they added some new buttons, including two buttons to the right of the handle and two buttons at the top of the handle. So far, standard gaming machines still retain this design.

Nintendo decided to partner with Sony to create some SNES-compatible CD-ROM accessories but later changed their mind to partner with Philips. The decision to change Nintendo's plan made Sony launch a game console of its own and that was the PlayStation launched in 1994.

Why does the PlayStation button icon have a square, triangle, X and O? Picture 2

The PlayStation is different from Nintendo's gaming system in that it has a unique logo - square, triangle, X, and O on the handle. Gamers in adventure or antagonistic games like these icons because they are simple and extremely easy to remember.

Regarding the meaning of 4 buttons, engineer Teiyu Goto - who helped design the original PlayStation as well as its handle in 2010 said:

' At that time, other game companies took letters or colors to distinguish buttons. But we want something more memorable and finally we chose the icons. At that time, I immediately thought of the triangle - round - X - square symbol set. Each icon has a meaning and a specific color.

Triangular symbol shows the user's perspective, is green.

The square symbol represents a sheet of paper, showing the control menu and it is pink.

The circle symbol and X indicate Yes / No - true / false in Japanese and they are red and blue respectively. '

It can be said, this is a historic change for Sony that makes anyone, even without playing the game recognize the Playstation.