Slashdot Mirror
Sony Admits to PSP Button Flaws
Apparently despite the original company line, there are indeed problems with the buttons on the PSP handheld. Sony has announced that they will repair the small number of units affected for free, and Tech Japan has the details. From the article: "The defect occurs in part of the initial shipment of PSP units and is caused by excess plastic not being completely removed during the molding and manufacturing process of the outer cabinet. As a result, when a button is pressed, it can become caught on the excess plastic and not return fully to its default position."
There was competition. If I remember correctly, the GameGear/Nomad was around in the 90's. None of that was Sony's work. Yeah, yeah, there was also the Wonderswan, but I don't think it made as big a splash as the gamegear did.
They are seperate problems. Sony has said that the sensor problem cannot be fixed w/o making the screen smaller or making the frame bigger. Apparently part of the screen is in the area where the sensor should be, so the quick fix was to just move the sensor over a bit.
Nintendo did not improve on the early gameboys because the technology either wasn't available or just cost prohibitive for the portable platform.(Remember the Gamegear? That was expensive and had horrible battery life.)
Instead they made incremental improvements on the gameboy as new technologies became available.
Also consider the fact that the console market was currently focused on the technological arms race of tv consoles. One would understand why a lack of innovation existed in the portable market.
Nintendo had a good solution for the time and they marketed it better than others. The Lynx, originally a creation of game publisher Epyx, came into Atari's hands when they ran out of money. Even though the Lynx debuted at almost the same time as the GB, and had great technology and decent battery life, Atari(once again) failed to market and distribute it successfully. Similarly, the Game Gear was good(not as good) tech but was marketed poorly, coming at the time when Sega was also dividing itself between the original Genesis/Megadrive, the 32x, the Sega CD, and finally the Saturn.
Because cheap and small technology for portable devices didn't really advance until the late 90s(remember that's when cell phones took off), the Game Boy didn't. They did the Super Game Boy for the SNES but that was different. When portable tech finally improved, they opted first to slim it down with the GB Pocket. Then they made a few incremental steps in technology for processing power and graphics. But none of this was really provoked by competition.
As soon as "real" competition appeared from the likes of Sony, they broke the mold of technological improvement and moved to the DS which is definitely very unique. They probably plan the same thing for the Revolution.
http://www.gamesarefun.com/consoles/psp/square.jpg
Just look how it all lines up.
Read the links, not the incorrect slashdot summary. The design flaw part of it isn't a design flaw. They're offering to repair manufacturing defects.
I believe the "Shuriken drive" is a hoax. For one, the disc ACCELERATES in the video... and appears to be falling straight downwards. Second, my friend bought a PSP and brought it into work, and we examined it:
1. Theres a bar in place to keep it from just popping out
2. It has no spring mechanism to push the disc outwards; it has a spring to move the disc slot outwards from the unit (it doesnt insert into the top, it inserts into a slot which then pushes into the PSP)
3. He couldn't get it to eject without pressing the eject button, even by applying as much twisting torque to the unit as he felt comfortable without risking breaking the thing.
Hunt your preferred prey at Aliens vs Predator MUD. Join the war at avpmud.com port 4000