Sony confirms you’ve been getting this PS4 feature wrong your entire life

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Sony PlayStation 4
(Image credit: Florian Gagnepain / Unsplash)

You could be mistaken for believing the biggest split in gaming is console vs PC, or Xbox One X vs PS4 Pro, or Mario vs Luigi... but you'd be wrong. The biggest debate in gaming at the moment was kicked-off from a very controversial tweet from Sony about the iconic buttons on its PlayStation DualShock controller.

According to Sony, we've been mispronouncing it for years. Instead of calling the button "Ex" – like every rational player does – it should be pronounced "Cross", the Japanese technology company has confirmed.

Although the debate has been fought on social media many, many times before – this is the first time anyone with any real authority has waded in. The official PlayStation UK account has tried to settle the argument for good, tweeting: "Triangle. Circle. Cross. Square. If Cross is called X (it's not), then what are you calling Circle?"

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It's a good point. Why haven't we been pronouncing the Circle button as Oh? And more importantly, do we really have to pronounce it "Cross" now that we've been told by PlayStation itself?

Not according to some social media commenters. 

"Crosses have the same distance between each stick. Crosses form a square," replied @SIECrimson "Exes don't have the same distance between each stick. Exes form a rectangle. Basic geometry."

And not according to a poll run by PlayStation itself on Twitter, which saw an inarguable 81% of respondents reply that we should all continue calling it "Ex" and not "Cross" or the baffling third option – "+ rotated 45°".

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Regardless of what you call the buttons, the PS4 remains the best-selling console of the current generation (whether Sony can hold off the competition next time around with its PlayStation 5 remains to be seen). With the next-generation console poised to launch next year, there are some stonking deals around on the PlayStation 4 Slim and the powerhouse PS4 Pro at the moment.

And if you're already the proud owner of a PS4, why not check-out these deals on the DualShock controller to add another set of Circle, Square, Triangle, and Cross buttons to your collection for local multiplayer.

Aaron Brown

As a former Staff Writer for T3, Aaron writes about almost anything shiny and techie. When he’s not barking orders at Alexa-powered microwaves or gawping at 5G speed tests, Aaron covers everything from smartphones, tablets and laptops, to speakers, TVs and smart home gadgets. Prior to joining T3, Aaron worked at the Daily Express and and MailOnline.