Sony dropped XMB from NGP for touch screens and the "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 allowing users access to "the social neworking factor."

Speaking in the latest issue of Edge (via CVG), Sony president Shuhei Yoshida told the magazine the firm wanted to make the device "very social network orientated," as 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 said. "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."

Yoshida also told Edge Sony would be unable to "sell the NGP for the same price as a PSP," but doesn't plan on reliving the pricing fiasco that was inherent with PS3, as this time around the firm had a price "target in mind," from the "very beginning."