Epic design boss Cliff "Cliffy B" Bleszinksi has heralded Sony's decision to implement twin thumbsticks on its NGP (PSP2) as a new dawn for FPS games on handheld.
The Gears Of War dev told CVG in a new interview centred on new game Bulletstorm that although he "loved" Apple's iOS, traditional dual-thumb shooters cannot currently be implemented well on touch-screen devices.
Epic showed off its own tech demo at the Sony NGP launch in Japan earlier this month, which was well received by those in attendance. The firm showed an updated version of its Epic Citadel demo, which later become action RPG Infinity Blade on iOS.
"[[Sony NGP] makes an entire genre doable on a handheld," Bleszinksi told CVG. "I love iOS, but the twin stick shooters on touch screens do not work. I bought the little stick-on analogue sticks [for iPad] and they kind of work, but it still isn't quite the same.
"They have a better shot than they would have on a touch screen device by having those mini-dual analogue sticks. I haven't played Killzone or Resistance on PSP or anything like that, but I think the potential is there [on NGP]. It's up to developers to make it shine by making the appropriate trade-offs with controls."