Buttons, clockwise from top

Nintendo: XABY
Microsoft: YBAX
Sony: △◯╳⬜

why does no one agree on what buttons go where

also playstation games can't even agree on what button does what. the original intent was for ◯ to be accept and ╳ to be cancel but half the games don't use that because while x = bad is pretty international, circle = good is pretty japan-specific, and x = 'here, this one' is also a thing outside of japan

also ⬜ was originally intended to be menu but few games acutally use it that way, △ is more commonly a menu button when one of the face buttons (and not start/select) is menu (possibly inherited from a few SNES games that used X for menu?)

also, the non-primary buttons are another matter

nintendo did (left to right) select/start until the N64 and gamecube, which just had start and no select, and then after that it's been +/- instead

sony copied nintendo and has used select/start the entire time

Microsoft went off and did their own thing with back/start

the wii/ps3/360 generation also introduced the system button, located between the start and select-slash-back buttons, though nintendo moved their system button around a bunch on their various handhelds and consoles

each system also did their own unique thing

the ps1 controller was a straight copy of the snes controller at first, except with two L and two R buttons. when analog controls became a thing, they just added two analog sticks on their own little nubs sticking out of the controller, which puts the left stick in a somewhat awkward position for use as the primary control method instead of the dpad

nintendo introduced analog controls along with a completely new console and new controller design so you ended up with the weird three-pronged thing that took the SNES controller's buttons and stripped out X, Y, and start, added an analog stick, and added a Z button and four C buttons, but you basically have to use either the analog stick and Z button OR the dpad and L button because of the way the controller is laid out. I guess you could use both if you sacrifice the A, B, Cx4, and R buttons though, wonder if any games did that

they fixed all that with the gamecube though, great controller that

microsoft had analog control in mind from the start, so they made basically the same overall layout that's used for most things today, with the left stick and face buttons in the places your thumbs most naturally rest and the dpad and right stick between those

Nintendo also used the microsoft layout on the gamecube and switch, though the wii pro controller used the sony-style layout and the wii u gamepad and pro controller used the... inverse-sony layout? with the sticks above and outside the dpad and face buttons, which was an interesting choice

nintendo was the first to have analog l/r buttons on the gamecube, though microsoft's xbox was in development at the same time and also had them

sony's playstation 2 only had the same digital l and r buttons as the ps1, though it had two of each in contrast to nintendo's analog l/r + digital z buttons and microsoft's analog l/r buttons

the x360 and ps3 both went the route of having one analog and one digital on each side, which I understand the xbone and ps4 have continued

nintendo did whatever the hell it was they did with the wii but then went back to conventional with the wii u and switch, though oddly both of those had two digital shoulder buttons on each side, no more analog

also the original xbox had two extra face buttons i forgot to mention, white and black, though they did away with those for the 360

as handhelds go, the gameboy had the same buttons as the NES; dpad, start, select, A, B, and that's it. the gameboy color didn't change that

the gba added shoulder buttons, L and R, though still only had two face buttons

it wasn't until the DS that we got proper four face button controls in a handheld, the same buttons the SNES had. then the 3ds added an analog stick on the left in addition to the dpad, and the new 3ds added a right analog stick, which is really more of a trackpoint nub, as well as two more shoulder buttons that as far as we've seen nothing actually uses

sony's psp had the analog stick and four face buttons from day one, but it didn't do anywhere near as well commercially as the ds, and the vita added the second analog stick but it did even worse than the psp and i think sony gave up on handhelds after that. the psp and vita both had just the two digital shoulder buttons

microsoft never did handhelds at all

sega's master system had exactly the same controller layout as the NES it was competing against, minus start and select, and then their Genesis (Mega Drive to EU people) added a start button and a C button, making the only three-face-button controller we've ever seen

there was also a six button genesis controller but i don't know if anything ever used that (might have been used by sega cd and 32x games, which used the genesis hardware as well in one of the most confusing moves anyone in the video game market has made ever)

the game gear had no C button but was otherwise the same button-wise as a genesis

the sega saturn had six face buttons, a start button, and two (digital?) shoulder buttons in addition to a dpad, and also had an alternate controller that looks horribly uncomfortable and which had all the same stuff plus an analog stick, in addition to a +/◯ switch that I don't know what it does

then the dreamcast had a dpad, an analog stick, analog shoulder buttons, four face buttons, and a start button in a weird uncomfortable layout. it also had a slot for a VMU which was a sort of add-on and sort of handheld (with a dpad and two buttons, gameboy style)

then sega stopped making consoles

@Felthry the six button layout was considered the best possible fighting game pad short of a stick. I never had one or used one but I've heard people praise it.

@yaodema Interesting. Never did understand why fighting games tend to have so many buttons, but I guess that's just how they work!