I think the earlier console generations where created by a bunch of passionate nerds eager to make something cool.

The current generations are created by highly talented designers whose work is reviewed by committee after committee with user research, marketing, management and creative direction all wanting to have a say - leading to the most universally acceptable compromise.

Once game development goes into the 300 million plus per title range, you really can't have any John Carmak or Romeros running around building stuff they are passionate about anymore. There's just too much money on the line...

Save file screens - cool or otherwise - are a way to deal with managing a limited resource. Now we have effectively infinite space to save our games and we don't need one of these any more.

Saved games are tiny compared to the space the games take up. They're not taking up space on a little wafer with enough room for a couple dozen games. They're backed up to the cloud. How many save games are on my computer and Steam Deck, hidden from me deep in the filesystem? I have no idea. I don't want to have any idea.

I've never had any desire to manage them once it stopped being a necessity. My save games just kinda happen.

Perhaps what happened is that game console demographics have changed so dramatically from a kids-only toy, to the preteen/teen male of the original Xbox era, and now to a general purpose entertainment device that has to appeal to all ages and demographics.

Probably the only console interface left with some whimsy is Nintendo but it is definitely a more muted and professional look than the past.

I’d also argue that Steam has had a very PC power user aesthetic for a long time, and while it isn’t quite as fun as any of these it’s definitely not corporate boring like PlayStation 5 or Xbox.

The PS2 save file models also had state animations. For example, if you hovered over "delete", a character would get on their knees and beg to be spared…!

When something like this is new they always put in effort to make it cool the first, but then with time and iterations it becomes a cost center to be minimized, or worse, an advertising center.

Can we get interesting UIs in general back? I hate all modern games with UIs (especially the fonts) that look like a generic corporate website. Yes yes, I know, accessibility, bla bla, make two versions then, should be easy enough now with AI.

The Xbox 360 blades UI might be making a comeback: https://www.purexbox.com/news/2026/10/xbox-exec-shows-off-ne...

Yes and you would blow in one if the first time wasn’t recognized. They were great sharing the saves too with friends, something that’s missing now unless you go and dig up those save files from your appdata or whatever they are hidden in.

no