The official Xbox Facebook page has just clarified what we all pretty much knew in our hearts all along.
The button that looks like and is shaped like an X is, in fact, called the "X button," and not "cross," or some other word that can technically describe two perpendicular lines, but most definitely does not describe a button on a video game controller that we've known for most of our lives.
Of course, corporate social media being what it is in 2019, whoever is in charge of the Xbox Facebook account has managed to simultaneously express unity among gamers and dunk on Sony in this very same post. It's clever, and also sort of terrifying.
Xbox's post is in celebration of National Video Games Day, which is apparently every year on September 12. On its surface, the post very benignly draws a sense of unity between video game systems, showing that X is the one button that all major consoles share, which is very slightly mindblowing in its own right (I never noticed that at least!).
Of course, anyone who happened to catch Playstation's bold and overconfident declaration that the X button is in fact called "cross" earlier this week knows that this is dig at Playstation too, despite what on the surface looks like a good faith inclusion of the PS4 controller in their poignant depiction of unity between video game platforms. On top of that, the X is, of course, the cornerstone of their very own console. X is not only prominently featured in the name of the Xbox, but it's the basis for the console's logo, which is an X in bright and glowing Mountain Dew green.
It's not difficult to fall on the right side of the X button debate when one side is a clear no-brainer and the other side is quite possibly just a stunt meant to generate free advertising through good old social media controversy. But to pull off a simultaneous feel-good declaration of cross-console unity as well as a bold affirmation of brand dominance in the same post? That takes some serious social media know-how.
Source: facebook.com/xbox