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Wow, this is big news for UI/UX. PlayStation 5 will use the X button to confirm by default for ALL REGIONS including Japan, who previously used O to confirm for the past 26 years. Muscle memory frustration for the nearly 10M PS users in Japan coming up. https://www.famitsu.com/news/202010/04207061.html
In Japan, the "Circle = Good, OK, Correct" symbolism has been common knowledge for many decades. When designing the original PlayStation controller, it was likely that the placement of the O/X were hence made to match the Super Famicom's A/B, and were utilized similarly.
But when the same hardware reached western shores, where the "O = Good" mnemonic doesn't exist, it appears developers latched onto X instead as the "primary" button - X marks the spot, and so on.
I'm not sure what went on for Dreamcast to place the A button in the bottom position, but Xbox also decided to place A in the bottom, and "Bottom button is confirm" became the de facto standard for mainstream video game controllers outside of Japan.
For a very long time PlayStation had to juggle two button configurations - right side button (O) to confirm in Japan, bottom side button (X) for elsewhere. I guess they've finally decided enough is enough and are no longer going to give Japan special treatment.
Though I expect this will go down VERY badly with Japanese players. Unlearning muscle memory acquired through years of repetition is extremely tough. For the short term, I think JP developers are actually going to face MORE dev burden instead of less due to this...
Also, Japan was one of the countries where the major accepted mainstream gaming platforms (This qualifier excludes Xbox and PC) had a uniform menu button control scheme, as both Nintendo and Sony used Right-to-Confirm.
This change will (annoyingly) also align Japan with the rest of the world, where the Confirm button will differ depending on whether you're a Sony or Nintendo fan - and a world of hurt if you have both! :|
