It’s true, apparently. The entire PSP and PS3 XMB interface, otherwise known as the Xross Media Bar, was made a reality by a single person — Japanese-based UI artist Yasuhiro Yamanaka, according to the man’s LinkedIn profile. In it, he claims he “designed PSP and PS3 User Interface all by myself.” Yamanaka is also in charge of all on-screen localization, meaning all those dialogue pop-ups and menu item descriptors were written by him.

Pretty impressive. With products such as the PS3, companies usually have at least a few people working on planning and laying out a design template. Clearly Sony was trying to cut costs here or more likely, they were fascinated with the XMB interface and just went ahead with it, without having others collaborate. For what it is, I think the XMB works well, so I’d say he did a great job. But there are others out there that are bound to disagree. And well, if you are one of those people, now you know who to blame for the monstrosity.

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