PSP Button failures "It wasn't a mistake"

[maxlords]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01...s_6116985.html

Gamers report PSP malfunction

Nearly 5,000 units are returned to Sony for buggy button; Kutaragi unapologetic about the handheld's design.
TOKYO--About 4,800 Japanese PSPs have been returned to Sony due to problems with the handheld's square button, according to a recent interview with Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi in Nikkei Business magazine.

Kutaragi acknowledged that the button is less responsive than the others, in part because it's so close to the PSP's 480x272 screen. Because there isn't enough room to put the square button's detection switch directly underneath, it's off to the right, making it less responsive--and sometimes causing it to stick.

Nikkei Business reported that, to date, .6 percent of the 800,000 shipped units have been returned to Sony for repair. Kutaragi was unapologetic about the issue: "This is the design that we came up with. There may be people that complain about its usability, but that's something which users and game software developers will have to adapt to. I didn't want the PSP's LCD screen to become any smaller than this, nor did I want its machine body to become any larger.

"The button's location is [architectured] on purpose," Kutaragi added. "It's according to specifications. This is something that we've created, and this is our specification. There was a clear purpose to it, and it wasn't a mistake."

Offering additional testimony praising the handheld, Kutaragi said, "I believe we made the most beautiful thing in the world. Nobody would criticize a renowned architect's blueprint that the position of a gate is wrong. It's the same as that."

[Crush Crawfish]

Someone wanna explain to me what the "clear purpose" of an unresponsive square button is?

[Gamereviewgod]

Kutaragi is full of it, plain and simple.

That's the biggest load of PR bull I've ever heard from Sony. I'll give some minor credit for at least admitting they know why it can be an issue, but then he fluffs it all up.

[Fungus]

Imagine Ford Motors taking the same stance about their Pinto.

"The gas tanks location is [architectured] on purpose, it's according to specifications. This is something that we've created, and this is our specification. There was a clear purpose to it, and it wasn't a mistake. So what if it explodes on contact killing everybody within a 15 miles radius. This is the design that we came up with. There may be people that complain about its usability, but that's something which drivers and pedestrians will have to adapt to."


Sooo, I guess I'm just gonna wait for ver. 2.0 of the PSP now. But then again, considering Kutaragi's attitude, this "design" may never change.

What a putz.

[Ernster]

ah Sony, some people never change, in Sony's case, they never stop sucking.

[zektor]

That is a terrible, unacceptable excuse for why a button designed to work..does not. Or at least according to some people..

[squirrelnut]

Sounds to me like he's trying to say "We fucked up... but we won't admit to it". I am surprised there not trying to blame the gamers for not knowing how to use the button correctly or something x_x

[Ed Oscuro]

The difference here between the Pinto and the PSP is that the Pinto was lacking a $12 (or was it less than than that?) pair of plastic pieces to shield the gas tank; the PSP's button is, to hear Ken say it, the result of an unavoidable design compromise. I'll have to try out the system for myself, but damn, it's starting to sound like Sony should make an external controller for this thing, what with the fabled (mostly inaccurate though) ninja star shooter on top of this

In all seriousness, Sony has historically made a big deal of its being the first company to have expertise at all points effecting a final design and its production...I see how he's making the comment that the system wouldn't look as good had the button been moved half a centimeter off to the right, but come on. Bad show.

[Fungus]

When it all comes down to it, it's about ego. "We're Sony, so if our designers designed it that way, then it can't be wrong, so deal."