Letters reigned supreme in most video game controls, with Nintendo leading the way. But the appearance of Sony’s PlayStation console opened a new door: that of the symbols on the controls.
Thus, the buttons on the PlayStation controls have a green triangle, a pink square, the blue X and the circle in red.
Because?
Behind this decision is the legendary Teiyu Goto, Sony designer since the 1980s.
Goto gave them shape to digital watches, camcorders, televisions and computers, such as the VAIO line, in addition to PlayStation and its devices.
In an interview cited by El País, he reflected: “We will always be people. And machines will always be machines. But we are increasingly working together with them and the connection between humans (analogue) and computers (digital) is, increasingly, of capital importance. This is my world”.
Now let’s get to the reason why PlayStation controls They have symbols and not letters.
Teiyu Goto spoke about it with Famitsu magazine, noting that “we wanted something simple to remember, that’s why we chose icons or symbols. “I gave each symbol a meaning and a color.”
“The triangle refers to the point of view: I made it represent the head or direction, and made it green. Square refers to a sheet of paper; I made it represent menus or documents and I made it pink,” she explained.
Close the designer: “The circle and the X They represent ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decision making, and I put them in red and blue, respectively.”
Since then, all PlayStation controllers have the same arrangement of symbols. And as Jared Newman points out for Technologizer, “function aside, you could say that PlayStation buttons have been more useful as marketing.”
“The four symbols, when used together, They are instantly associated with the PlayStation brand. The same cannot be said for A, B and C.”