For almost 25 years, Sony has made PlayStation controllers with an X as the main button. But according to a tweet from the Playstation UK account, that button should not, in fact, be called the X button. Apparently, it is actually supposed to be referred to as the “cross” button.

Triangle

Circle

Cross

Square



If Cross is called X (it's not), then what are you calling Circle? https://t.co/dvQ19duemW — PlayStation UK (@PlayStationUK) September 5, 2019

This bothers me. The button has an X printed on it. I feel like that should end the debate right there.

And the X — sorry, cross — button and I already have something of a troubled history, so it won’t be easy for me to call my enemy by a different name. Approximately 50 percent of my Final Fantasy VII playthroughs consist of me cursing the *pauses, takes a deep breath* cross button *exhales* because it backs me out of menus instead of allowing me to select something. (The button I should press for that is the circle, which, thankfully, Sony isn’t telling me to call the “ring” or something.)

Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks “cross” is wrong. In a Twitter poll run by the main PlayStation Twitter account, 81 percent of respondents said it should be called the “X” button. “Cross” got third place in the poll behind “+ rotated 45 degrees.”

What do you call it? — PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 7, 2019

The main PlayStation account has not weighed in with an official opinion, only posting the poll. Since the ruling came from PlayStation UK, saying “cross” might just be a UK thing, like calling chips “crisps.”

Given that 1) I don’t live in the UK, and 2) “cross” got a lower number of votes in the Twitter poll than a joke answer, I will continue cursing the button using its proper name: the X button.