XMB: RIP

Kris Erickson • Jan 30, 2011 • Comments ()

This weekend Sony officially announced the successor to the PSP handheld, the PlayStation NGP (Next Generation Portable). While not bearing the familiar "PSP" branding, this new device shares lots in common with the current-generation PSP. It has a large, landscape-oriented screen, shoulder buttons, and the familiar gamepad buttons on either side (view photos of the Sony NGP here). But a lot of other things have changed: the device sports a multi-touch screen, dual analogs, GPS, cameras, and 3G connectivity.

One of the first things you will notice is that Sony's Cross-Media Bar (XMB) does not seem to have secured a place in this new future. The XMB, which is currently used as the navigation interface on Sony TVs, the PS3 and PSP devices, will be replaced on the NGP with something looking much closer to the interface on Apple and Android touchscreen devices.

We're not sure we like the layout of the new interface shown in this product demo - it reminds us a bit of a CD-ROM menu screen from the Windows 95 era. Hopefully the Sony design team come up with something a bit slicker for the final version. Check out a photo of the new Sony NGP interface:

Sony ngp navigation interface