Sony NGP: XMB Dropped For Touch Screen Controls And Social Networking Factor

Sony has said it dropped the XMB user interface from NGP so that touch screens controls could be added to the handheld along with an attempt to make the device “very social network orientated”.

Speaking in the latest issue of Edge, Sony Computer Entertainment worldwide studios president Shuhei Yoshida revealed that touch screen controls was the key reason behind ditching the XMB.

“That is indeed one key reason,” he said.

While the other underlying point was to allow the users to access “the social networking factor”, “The other fundamental point was our desire to make this device very social network orientated: there are lots of fun games on Facebook, for example.

“We wanted to integrate the social networking factor, the potential for friends to join in, interact at any moment,” he told Edge. “We wanted the entire screen to be part of that experience.

“To do so, we thought it was important to let users keep track of their game even when they weren’t playing it – with the LiveArea, for example.”

Via CVG