alt Hacker NewsPS3 was peak modern console UI. No-nonsense, easy, clear, fast. Was so happy when I first tried RetroArch to find that their default simply copied the PS3.
The store was terrible, though. Their Cell “supercomputer” could play advanced 3D games, but couldn’t handle rendering a web store. Chalk it up to the amazing ability of web UI and JavaScript to make everything feel slow. They should have stuck with a native UI for that generation, I’d bet it lost them lots of sales. Practically unusable.
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Unfortunately, the kinds of workloads Cell was good at had very little in common with what a web browser, especially of the time, needed. As always, it was a fascinating design incompatible with the needs of software and the market at large.
The XMB was initially used in the PSX, and later the PSP. It makes sense that retroarch copied it, since the PS3 was the first platform it was available on after someone got tired of porting emulators to the newly-hacked console one at a time.
It was fine before. I think they changed it to the current abomination when PS4 launched?
Oh? I really liked Xbox 360's "blades" dashboard UI. It was quite fast, and was quite simple. On every screen, there's a clear indication of what your controller buttons do, making it really quick to get around in. Some video of the dashboard in use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P5gTvXct30