New XMB Concept is Sleek, Clean, and Fantastic [UPDATE]
The XMB gets generally positive feedback from the PlayStation community. Having said that, though, there are some features that many gamers would like included. There have been many XMB concepts, including new features, and these latest ones look like the sleekest and cleanest yet.
TheSixthAxis recently spoke to artist Caemgen (PSN), a user on Neogaf. Caemgen has posted his latest work, an XMB redesign. The redesign isn’t huge, like some concepts, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t look incredible. This new concept shows tweaks to various areas of the XMB.
The PS3 invite system has been quite nitpicked since in-game XMB began. When a friend sends you an invite for a game, you’ll have to open the XMB, scroll to your message box, open the inbox, select the message, then accept the invite–a somewhat clunky process. PSN user Caemgen decided to take the Xbox 360 route on this one, offering a simpler way to accept invites. Another new feature he added to the concept was a new box beside your friend list. This new box gives the latest snapshot on their PlayStation Home avatar, and trophies earned in the past week.
What’s your opinion on this XMB concept? Post your comments below!
[UPDATE] New, larger images added.
[Source]
34 Responses to “New XMB Concept is Sleek, Clean, and Fantastic [UPDATE]”
I don’t know why people bother with these concepts – they’re a complete waste of time.
Personally, I think XMB is fine as it is. But aside from that, creating pretty pictures is comparatively easy. To actually program the functionality behind them is a whole other matter. Sony are continuously working to speed up the XMB and/or free up XMB memory so that developers can give us better games. Adding lots of pointless pretty screens like these would most likely have a negative impact in these areas.
So thanks, but not thanks. Just give me an in-built party system (NOT cross-game chat) and I’ll be happy.
i like it , slowly psn is becoming pretty good. too bad it didn’t start off like this.
l like it. It’s better to have new features then at all. l mean who’s complaining about this
Ehh, its looks .alright…. not great, but alright
hopefully they’ll update the psp’s xmb, i would love to have the ability to play custom soundtracks while playing psp games and possibly ps1 games as well as mini’s.
You can find the original designs here (which make much more sense in full-res):
http://www.caemgen.nl/xmb/
lots of nice tweaks, speeding up the Home launch itself is a great addition.
@Paranoimia
The People working on the xmb are a bunch of morons in my honest opinion. It took them over a year to fix the clock issue people was complaining about since the introduction of in-game xmb. I will give you that the last three pictures are useless, but the first 3 are what we need. The first 3 images are basically what xbox live offers when you receive an invite or message. You just press the xbox button and it takes you directly to the message for you to read or join.
While I like how simple it is to navigate the xmb compare to navigating Xbox live, the XMB is showing it age with lack of features.
I like it Caemgen.
exposure exposure! start posting it everywhere ,and maybe you’ll get a response from the higher ups if enough attention is gained.
Pretty slick work. I’m mostly interested in the feature that allows you to see which trophies have most recently been earned. Also, I’d only want the new set up if I have the choice to go back to the original XMB.
I really like the new messaging and invite system. Way more efficient. But does anybody know when this will be coming out? Also I wish the XMB would load faster when pressing the playstation button when your in a game.
I like the look of that concept. I wish they had a place on the XMB to view a trophy room where you can see all the trophies that person has owned in a showcase type of thing.
More features are always welcome. I like the friend request and invite feature. I hate it when people send me invites during a game and I can’t go straight to the message. As for checking the trophies earned within the last 7 days, I may use it when I first update but than i may never use it again.
I think the first image is what we need as Xbox Live has those features whenever some sends you a message or an invite to a game. What I would really like is the ability to know how many friends are online like Xbox Live does when you log into it. I seen alot of mockup XMB screens on playstation.com and though they are pretty good it would probably take Sony years to get XMB up to those standards.
@Psmgamer: You can already see how many users are online. It’s in the upper right-corner, next to your avatar and the message-indicator/clock.
Also: Please note that my idea was to only implement the ‘what’s happening’-slideshow into the XMB when you’re NOT in a game. It doesn’t have to be in the in-game XMB. That would use a lot of RAM. But when nothing but the XMB is running, the PS3 won’t have any problem displaying something like this.
As for the context sensitive PS-button: It will only open the received message/invite immediately when the notification is active. And even IF you accidentaly open the message while you just wanted to go the the XMB, all you have to do is press Circle to close the message. =)
I think letting Sony know what you want to be improved with the XMB is a great idea through forums and things like that, but I have to agree with Paranoimia that actually creating the concept and trying to present it visually is pretty pointless and a waste of time, but to each his own I guess. Sony might find your idea and like some things about it, but the only thing they will take away from it are some of the features that may improve the simplicity and functionality of the XMB, they won’t implement it in the same way or with the same look. That is why I say it is a waste of time, if you want something to change just make a list and post it some where in the official Playstation forums. Going to the work of actually doing the design, etc. is a waste of time. But if you have time to waste I guess go ahead and waste it.
I love how PS3 users claim to be fans and then bash Sony for not making an Xbox. “we want achievements, we want quicker ability to join and invite, we want everything Xbox users have” why not just go and buy a Xbox? obviously you like Microsoft better.
I believe the loading time to show your XMB while in-game depends on your HDD, if it’s 7200 RPM or higher then it loads quicker, including comparing trophies. I know this, since mine loads relatively quickly in comparison to my friend’s.
The game invite improvement, YES. Now that ofher thing about tellin people where I’m at in home and how many trophies I’ve earn is kinda lame. Now if they just added status, like Watchin movie or idle times and not adding new windows and taking up xmb memory.
@Natiej85: It’s a ‘slideshow’ (or carrousel, if you will) of random (live or cached) information accompanied by pictures or snapshots from PlayStation Home, the trophies of your friends, who’s playing what etc etc…
Only thing I can think of for the XMB would be little bit better way to group media files into folders not just playlists. Over all still like the XMB and how they have been able to add to it with new services and options.
I like it. It’s not a complete overhaul or a ‘start from scratch’ approach, it just livens up the existing canvas in ways that should already be there. If there is one thing that XBL has over PSN, it’s the interactivity and overall ‘connected’ feel. XBL can feel like it has it’s own existence, while PSN is kind of just there. XBL does such a better job of making you feel connected to your friends and the service by just doing simple little things like Caemgen displayed above. Yea, PSN has made good strides since it’s bland introduction, but it’s still more dull than it should be.
@darkangel269
You’re not making any sense. There is nothing wrong with constructive criticism, or taking cues from the competition. I prefer the PlayStation brand, among other reasons, because of the game selection. However, only a blind follower of ANY product, will ignore the things that the ‘other’ company does differently or better.
I’d also like to add that it always seems as if it is the most obvious additions or changes to PSN that we, the gamers, present instead of Sony. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I was very disappointed to not hear any news of upgrades or additions to PSN at GDC. It doesn’t make sense that PSN can be so lacking when such simple implementations like these are out there in the wild. I wish I knew what the managers meetings look like behind closed doors.
Caemgen beautiful work! I like every single thing you have done. However, I’ll put $100 down right now that Sony never implements any of this. Idea’s and artists concepts just go into one of their ears and right out the other. These are the people that brought us SPARKLES! Sparkles! Remember when we all use to huddle around our PS3s and think “You know what this XMB really needs? God damn sparkles!”
I wish you luck, but I won’t hold my breathe.
I don’t have any problem with the recent invite system, why is clunky when you only have to open the XMB and go to your inbox and join? It’ll only take few seconds of your precious time. It can be annoying sometimes when the XMB takes a while to load, but that depends on the game you’re playing.
The box beside the ID looks good, and I think Sony will do that eventually. I remember there was an interview with a Sony official (forgot his name) stating that a similar feature might come in the future.
I did a short animation-video to show how it could look in the XMB:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55PnNlPherk&fmt=22
Note that there should obviously be a longer pause between the two items in the ‘feed’… Unfortunately, I didn’t have more video to edit them in. Anyway… I’m sure you’ll get the idea.
Just watched it, and it’s looks very, very good. I would really like this feature in the PS3 XMB.
Thanks Dan!
Caemgen I seriously hope Sony sees this and hires you. At least you have some vision. If you are hired by them, please give who ever is in charge of the XMB a hoof in the nuts for me on your first day.
These concepts are stupid. They’re based on ideas based on an artistic aesthetic standpoint. Not on a programming and infastructure standpoint.
Someone take a PS3, then hack the firmware, and show a proof of concept. It’s one thing to go into adobe photoshop premiere or something and put on a whole bunch of concept art with a bunch of transparent layers and everything, it’s another thing to program all of this into the PS3.
I mean you weren’t able to put on Uncharted 1 unless you turned off the XMB sparkles. Doing an overhaul like this would be likely to BREAK EVERYTHING. Maybe over time adjust the XMB ever so slightly, but these overhauls are rediciulious and won’t be done overnight with a freaking firmware.
The people who do these concept arts are trolls essentially. They don’t know the hardware and software problems that can crop up with all of these changes. They’re just getting people riled up for nothing.
Please quit feeding them you guys.
@MakaiOokami:
I can tell you that, though the information in the pop-up notifications may be a bit too much for SD tv’s, that the coding behind it’s functionality (pressing the PS-button to quickly view whatever the notification is about) certainly isn’t that difficult at all.
Also, this isn’t an ‘overhaul’. It’s just a small improvement that would make communicating/accepting invitations much easier.
As for the live feed-concept for to the XMB’s Friendlist: It’s just an addition. Nothing that currently exists would be changed. The only thing it would potentially change, is the way that everything’s is connected on the PlayStation Network. It would make a lot of things, like PlayStation Home, or online multiplayer games much more accessible/inviting for people.
Yo I like this new concept of the XMB its a pretty cool idea hope it works out as planned.
@Caemgen like I said you guys don’t know much about the XMB.
If this stuff was REALLY as simple as you think it is, how come some games could not be played unless you turned off the sparkly background of the PSN? I mean that stuff isn’t even displayed during games. So how could it POSSIBLY have an effect?
Well because this sort of GUI stuff can cause a lot of unintended consequences and if it was really as easy as you guys think it is, they would have done it.
Maybe they CAN do this with the recently freed up memory within the PS3 when they release the next firmware. However I doubt it. You’re an artist dude. Not a programmer. You don’t know what it’s like coding this stuff for something that has such a limited amount of resources and still properly functions within the game.
You think it’s easy, but it’s not as you expect. I’ve seen GUI changes with just a few minor tweaks completely break programs in multiple platforming environments.
Plus you take into account things like the kind of changes that would need to be implimented in Home, and all the testing all of this would require, it won’t happen any time soon.If they WERE to do something like this it’d be on the PS4. Flat out. I stand by that statement.
I mean they were talking about home having a 2D menu similar to the XMB like 2 years ago. They just now were able to release it. Sony is trying to handle adding the new features, and trying to add the new functionality to the PSN while scaling back the amount of resources the PS3 actually uses for the XMB.
This would screw things up. I know you don’t understand how or why? But then again you’re an artist not a programmer. A live feed concept that you are doing, is an overhaul.
Besides the cross game invites and all of that stuff, it’s all built into the PSN. If you want to complain cause the invite system is too hard or not inviting enough for people to use, complain to the devs. Buzz Quiz World has a cross game invite. I can sit there and play Mega Man 10, get an invite, then toss in Buzz Quiz World, hit the join button in the PSN message and get brought into the multiplayer match they created.
I don’t give a crap about the XMB looking a little nicer. I just want a few more of the already promised features to be delivered and I”ll be content.
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