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