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This is a shot in the dark, but lots of these kinds of things stem from weird patents held by companies at various times. I know that the first iteration of this was on the SNES, which launched after the Sega Genesis, which used ABC. I would bet this was a way to have a 4 button layout without involving lawyers, though I’m only guessing.
The simple answer is that this design is borrowed from the SNES from the early ’90s, and the original design decision was never documented, so all we can do is guess.
However, if we are going to make an educated guess, we can look into the full history of video game controller design and draw from any relevant documentation we can find.
The pre-existing Neo Geo’s ABCD layout and the Sega Genesis’ ABC layout may have forced a decision to change the letters on the SNES controller.
C & D would be easier for people to mix up, especially for people who don’t use the Latin alphabet.
X & Y (just like A & B) are very common pairs of letters in mathematics and programming, which Nintendo engineers probably would have been familiar with.
It’s a very interesting video with a lot of great information. I recommend you watch it.
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Well probably because you want to know is my guess why
Because the original ni yendo was AB then SNES came along and had AB XY so they have stayed with that theme Xbox uses the same
This is a shot in the dark, but lots of these kinds of things stem from weird patents held by companies at various times. I know that the first iteration of this was on the SNES, which launched after the Sega Genesis, which used ABC. I would bet this was a way to have a 4 button layout without involving lawyers, though I’m only guessing.
Gun turrets on battleships were labelled from bow to stern in this manner throughout the 20th century.
The simple answer is that this design is borrowed from the SNES from the early ’90s, and the original design decision was never documented, so all we can do is guess.
However, if we are going to make an educated guess, we can look into the full history of video game controller design and draw from any relevant documentation we can find.
That sounds like a lot of work. So, fortunately, YouTuber Lextorias did exactly that last year in his video Why Are Controller Buttons Like That?. He starts talking about the SNES controller at 26:27 and draws a theory of three presumed reasons:
It’s a very interesting video with a lot of great information. I recommend you watch it.