In an interview with Famitsu magazine (translated by 1Up), the man behind the external design of every Sony PlayStation console, controller, and other accessories shared the motivation behind many of his design choices. When referring to the original PlayStation, Teiyu Goto shared that “the console itself was a relatively easy design process, but we went through a great number of stages with the controller.” During the early stages of design, Sony management insisted that the controller not look and function much differently from the SNES controller (see top right). “The Super NES was a huge hit at the time, and naturally we wanted SNES gamers to upgrade to our system,” said Goto. “That’s why the management department didn’t want the controller to be a radical departure — they said it had to be a standard type of design, or gamers wouldn’t accept it.” Though management was against Goto’s idea of molding a controller with grips at both ends instead of creating a flat, SNES-like design, Goto (with support from then-Sony president Norio Ohga) was given the green light to move forward with his radical new approach.
And here’s the bombshell. Goto finally made known the meanings behind the four face buttons that continue to live on in the PlayStation brand:
“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. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that’s what I wanted.”
And now you know.