DualShock designer reveals meaning of shape buttons, have absolutely nothing to do with crop circles

Have you ever wondered what the face buttons on the PlayStation DualShock pads stand for? Of course you haven't. You actually have a life. But for all four gamers out there with miserable enough existences to ponder such mysteries, take your head out of that gas oven, becauseTeiyu Goto (designer of all three PlayStation consoles and their pads) has just revealed allin an interview with Famitsu...

In a lengthydiscussion with the legendary Japanese games mag, Goto states: "Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colors to the buttons. We wanted something simple to remember, which is why we went with icons or symbols, and I came up with the triangle-circle-X-square combination immediately afterward."

"I gave each symbol a meaning and a color."

"The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one's head or direction and made it green."

"Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink."

"The circle and X represent 'yes' or 'no' decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively."

So well done, Mr. Goto. You really are a talented son of a bitch.

Of course, he's also the man that came up with this...

Above: Mick Dundee called. He wants his shit controller back

26 Aug, 2010