How to Remap Controllers on Console | Video

How to Remap Controllers on Console

Being able to remap the controller buttons can be a useful tool for improving accessibility for players on console. In this video we will go through how to remap standard controllers at system level on the Xbox Series, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 consoles.

You can use the timestamps and chapter markers below to jump to the relevant console for you.

Xbox Series Console Remapping

Here we’re showing you on the Xbox Series X console, but the remapping process is the same for both the Series X and Series S console. We will be remapping a standard controller. To remap an Xbox Adaptive Controller, please see our post on this linked in the description below.

There are a few ways you can access the screen that is used to configure your controller, but we will focus on one method to keep it simple.

On the Xbox home screen, navigate up and across to the ‘Settings’ gear icon. Select it and it will open up a menu.

Then go down to ‘Devices & connections’ and select it.

Navigate across and select ‘Controllers & headsets’.

Below your controller, select ‘Configure’.

Select ‘New Profile’ on the left and create a profile name.

In this screen you can choose which button you wish to remap.

You can remap any of the digital buttons to another digital button, including the face buttons, the D-pad buttons, the bumpers and the stick click buttons. However, you cannot swap this with analog controls, like the triggers or the thumbstick directions.

Here I will demonstrate a popular remapping choice, remapping the face buttons, in this case the A, B, X and Y buttons to the D-pad and vice versa.

This can be useful for those who are playing using one side of the controller or using a modded standard controller, like an Evil one-handed controller.

On this screen, you can also swap the sticks over. Doing this, the one on the left will control actions that the Right Stick normally would and vice versa.

You can also swap triggers, so the trigger on the left will be used for the actions that the Right Trigger would usually perform by default. The Right Trigger will then perform those that the Left Trigger would normally perform.

To save the profile, exit the screen using the B button (by default).

Once you have created a profile, can edit it further by selecting it and then selecting the pencil icon.

If you would like to use the profile, navigate to the profile name on the left of the screen, and then up to where it says, ‘No Slot’ and select ‘Slot 1’.

Please note that the remapping options may differ depending on your controller. For example, the Elite Controller has more options including adjustment of the joystick dead zones and mapping of the additional buttons on the back of the controller.

To turn your button remapping off to use the default controller layout, navigate back to the custom button assignments menu and either select ‘Default’ from the left or one of your other saved profiles below that.

Changing the controller mapping at system level this way will change how these inputs work in all instances that you use the controller. For instance, in the Xbox menus, in your game’s menus and in gameplay itself. However, the in-game onscreen prompts that help you to know which inputs to press, will not be updated. So, you would need to remember which input you swapped.

Alternatively, games may offer remapping options within the game itself, which should then be updated in the in-game prompts.

You can find information on which games may include this option by using the Accessible Games Initiative tags on the Xbox Store. These tags are listed in the information when viewing a particular game. You can find these by scrolling down to the ‘Game features’ section of the game’s store page.

The ‘Basic Input Remapping’ tag, is used by games that ‘Let you rearrange the button controls’ and the ‘Full Input Remapping’ tag shows by games that ‘Let you choose which action in the game is assigned to which control.’ As well as appearing in the game information in the store, you can also use these tags to filter games by one or more accessibility features. More information on how to do this can be found in our ‘Accessible Games Initiative Tags on Xbox’ article.

PS5 Remapping

For the PlayStation 5, we will be remapping with the standard DualSense controller. Please see our video on the PlayStation Access controller to investigate its remapping options, which is linked below. The remapping option is the same whichever version of the PlayStation 5 console you have.

With the standard DualSense PlayStation 5 controller connected and the console already turned on, navigate to the settings cog icon. This is at the top of the home screen on the right.

Then navigate down to ‘Accessibility’ and select it.

Navigate down and select ‘Controllers’.

Then select ‘Custom Button Assignments for DualSense Wireless Controller’.

Select the ‘Enable Custom Button Assignments’ option and then select ‘Customise Button Assignments’.

On this screen, you can remap a button or trigger by selecting the input icons on the controller diagram. By default, these will match the same inputs on the controller they link to. If you wish to change what each of the inputs do, select the default input icon and then choose what button or trigger input you would like it to carry out instead. You can swap any of the digital input buttons such as the face buttons, D-pad button, Stick Click buttons and Bumper buttons. You can also swap any of these with the Trigger inputs. You cannot remap any inputs to the thumbstick directions, but you can swap these over using the ‘Switch the Left and Right Sticks’ option from the previous screen. Once you’re happy with your remapped controller layout, select ‘Apply’ and it will take effect, in the PlayStation menus and within your games. There is only one profile available, which will need to be edited between games if a different layout would suit a particular game.

The process differs for the DualSense Edge as you just need to go to ‘Settings’, open ‘Accessories’, then select ‘DualSense Edge Wireless Controller and Custom Profiles’.

To turn your button remapping off, navigate back to the ‘Custom Button Assignments’ menu and turn off.

Using remapping like this at system level will not update the in-game prompts that let you know which inputs to press for different actions in your game. Therefore, you may wish to remap the inputs within your game, if they include this option. To do this with your existing games, you will need to look in the Options menus. Usually, the remapping will be located within a controls- related menu or submenu.

You can take a look in the PlayStation store to see if a game has a button remapping option as some developers will have tagged their games using the ‘PS5 Accessibility Feature Tags’. If it includes some remapping options it will have the ‘Controller Remapping’ tag. Not all games have had the tags applied, so some games may include remapping, but some may not be tagged with it.

To find these tags in the store, select a game, then in the information panel on the right-hand side, you can see if that game offers any accessibility features. You can select the panel, then ‘Accessibility Features’ to view a breakdown of that game’s tags. ‘Controller Remapping’ will be listed under the ‘Controls’ section. If this has ‘(Advanced)’ in brackets, it means that you can ‘fully customise the game’s controllers’. If it has ‘(Basic)’, it means ‘you can change the controls to an alternative preset layout, or some remapping support is provided’. Some information on the tags can be found in our article on them.

Nintendo Switch 2 Remapping

For the Nintendo Switch 2, you can remap both the Joy-Cons and the Pro Controller.

To remap the buttons, on the home screen, navigate to ‘System Settings’.

Then go down to ‘Accessibility’.

Then go across and select ‘Change Button Mapping’.

In this menu, select the paired controller you wish to change and select ‘Change’.

If you are using a Joy-Con and use it horizontally, you can choose to display it horizontally.

You can then select any of the buttons to remap and assign its new input. You can even disable a button in the menu. This could be useful if you want to avoid certain buttons being pressed accidently when holding the controller.

If you want to remap the control stick, select ‘Control Stick Settings’ on the right of the screen. Here you can change it to the other stick. You cannot remap each of the directions to another input, such as a button press.

However, you can change the thumbstick orientation if using it horizontally. This means the direction of the joystick will be changed for the whole system. This could be useful for navigating the system menus if you always use the Joy-Cons positioned in a horizontal position.

Select ‘Save’ to confirm and save your changes.

You can save this as one of up to five presets, enabling you to reset your controller to default and then load a saved preset as and when you want to use it, such as if sharing the controller with someone else, or if using different presets for different games.

The Switch 2 also has the option for quick remapping. To do so, hold the home button to open the quick menu.

Remapping at system level this way will mean that you will need to remember the controller layout you have remapped and in-game prompts will not be updated. Therefore, it may be worth taking a look in a game’s own menus. For instance, if onscreen it says to press the A button to jump, you may have remapped Down on the D-pad to be A instead, so will need to press this.

Therefore, it may be worth taking a look in a game’s own menus, to see if it includes remapping options. When you remap this way, in-game prompts should be updated to show you the input you have remapped to use, instead of the default control.

Outro

We hope that this video has been useful in helping to remap the inputs on your controller. For information on alternative controllers, please visit the ‘Equipment’ section on GameAccess.info. For information of in-game features that may make a game more accessible, please see our ‘Games’ section.

For developers interested in how mapping options can be offered to let players use the inputs that are most accessible to them, please see the ‘Action Mapping’ topic in the SpecialEffect DevKit.

These videos show examples of how games have offered this through options such as contextual mapping, input stacking and interchanging analog with digital inputs.

There are a few ways you can access the screen that is used to configure your controller, but we will focus on one method to keep it simple.

On the Xbox home screen, navigate up and across to the ‘Settings’ gear icon. Select it and it will open up a menu.

Then go down to ‘Devices & connections’ and select it.

Navigate across and select ‘Controllers & headsets’.

Below your controller, select ‘Configure’.

Select ‘New Profile’ on the left and create a profile name.

In this screen you can choose which button you wish to remap.

You can remap any of the digital buttons to another digital button, including the face buttons, the D-pad buttons, the bumpers and the stick click buttons. However, you cannot swap this with analog controls, like the triggers or the thumbstick directions.

Here I will demonstrate a popular remapping choice, remapping the face buttons, in this case the A, B, X and Y buttons to the D-pad and vice versa.

This can be useful for those who are playing using one side of the controller or using a modded standard controller, like an Evil one-handed controller.

On this screen, you can also swap the sticks over. Doing this, the one on the left will control actions that the Right Stick normally would and vice versa.

You can also swap triggers, so the trigger on the left will be used for the actions that the Right Trigger would usually perform by default. The Right Trigger will then perform those that the Left Trigger would normally perform.

To save the profile, exit the screen using the B button (by default).

Once you have created a profile, can edit it further by selecting it and then selecting the pencil icon.

If you would like to use the profile, navigate to the profile name on the left of the screen, and then up to where it says, ‘No Slot’ and select ‘Slot 1’.

With the standard DualSense PlayStation 5 controller connected and the console already turned on, navigate to the settings cog icon. This is at the top of the home screen on the right.

Then navigate down to ‘Accessibility’ and select it.

Navigate down and select ‘Controllers’.

Then select ‘Custom Button Assignments for DualSense Wireless Controller’.

Select the ‘Enable Custom Button Assignments’ option and then select ‘Customise Button Assignments’.

On this screen, you can remap a button or trigger by selecting the input icons on the controller diagram. By default, these will match the same inputs on the controller they link to. If you wish to change what each of the inputs do, select the default input icon and then choose what button or trigger input you would like it to carry out instead. You can swap any of the digital input buttons such as the face buttons, D-pad button, Stick Click buttons and Bumper buttons. You can also swap any of these with the Trigger inputs. You cannot remap any inputs to the thumbstick directions, but you can swap these over using the ‘Switch the Left and Right Sticks’ option from the previous screen. Once you’re happy with your remapped controller layout, select ‘Apply’ and it will take effect, in the PlayStation menus and within your games. There is only one profile available, which will need to be edited between games if a different layout would suit a particular game.

To remap the buttons on the home screen, navigate to ‘System Settings’.

Then go down to ‘Accessibility’.

Then go across and select ‘Change Button Mapping’.

In this menu, select the paired controller you wish to change and select ‘Change’.

If you are using a Joy-Con and use it horizontally, you can choose to display it horizontally.

You can then select any of the buttons to remap and assign its new input. You can even disable a button in the menu. This could be useful if you want to avoid certain buttons being pressed accidently when holding the controller.

If you want to remap the control stick, select ‘Control Stick Settings’ on the right of the screen. Here you can change it to be the other stick. You cannot remap each of the directions to another input, such as a button press.

However, you can change the thumbstick orientation if using it horizontally. This means the direction of the joystick will be changed for the whole system. This could be useful for navigating the system menus if you always use the Joy-Cons positioned in a horizontal position.

Select ‘Save’ to confirm and save your change.

You can save this as one of up to five presets, enabling you to reset your controller to default and then load a saved preset as and when you want to use it, such as if sharing the controller with someone else, or if using different presets for different games.

The Switch 2 also has the option for quick remapping. To do so, hold the home button to open the quick menu.