It’s probably just more costly on the manufacturing side. More molds, more pieces to work with, modular structure etc etc. I also think it’s not as impactful, not sure about you but I’ve developed enough muscle memory to not even look at the front facing buttons, as long as I have Xbox button layouts in games, even with playstation controllers lol
There’s certainly a market for physically swappable buttons, otherwise why would the 8BitDo Pro 3 release with that feature (and advertise it), or the Supernova and the Tarantula Pro. It is definitely a desired feature for some, and I think it’s a bit odd that very few controllers have it, especially given some controllers have very niche (but still useful to some) features (see the numerous controllers with screens, Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot that lets you swap to d-pad centric layout, etc.).
JustARaccoon@lemmy.world 1 day ago
sbeak@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
That’s fair. Although it is a bit confusing when playing an Xbox game, since I grew ip with the Nintendo layout as a kid, I instinctively think that “A” is to the right and “B” is at the bottom.
JustARaccoon@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I know this is a software solution but if this is for steam there’s an option under controller settings to use a Nintendo layout. I can appreciate the issue more though when you predominantly grew up playing a different platform from the one you’re playing now
sbeak@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
I think it’s good that there’s at least a few good controllers that offer physically swappable buttons. The GameSir Supernova looks pretty good for the price, while the Tarantula Pro and 8BitDo Pro 3 look like decent symmetrical stick options.
Diddlydee@feddit.uk 19 hours ago
I’m still at a yotal loss as to the purpose.
The button positions never move, only the letters or colours. You don’t look at your hands when you’re playing, so I don’t get why you’d need to swap buttons at all, outside of a game menu.
If you’re used to blue being left or X being bottom or whatever, do that in the menu. Your thumbs can’t see the buttons so it makes no difference. You have bought a controller to do what a menu does for free at the click of a button (a button that means whatever you assign it to mean).