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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."
It's good to quash this kind of stuff as soon as possible. At the price they are selling, they need to take away any technical excuse to not buy a PSP in order to compete with Nintendo at the portable level.
Earn a free iRiver
"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."
"This is intentional, and in our oppinion a good design feature."
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.
This doesn't seem to affect the fact that the square button is not right over the sensor. Are gamers still expected to "have to deal with it" or is this being addressed as well?
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.
.. you'd know that was a design feature and you should never criticize a renowned architect when he puts a gate in the wrong place!
"The Nintendo handheld monopoly has got to go."
Why? It's there because the market decided it should be there, not because Nintendo has a gun put to everybody's head. Frankly, if Sony isn't getting things right, like YOU said, then why on Earth would you want THEM to be in a monopoly?
"It's funny that Nintendo released gameboy boy black and white lasting a decade, with zero motivation to improve."
0 motivation? I suppose you forgot Nintendo's innovation attempt called Virtual Boy. Tee hee giggle snort. Anyway, the main reason why Nintendo hasn't had a serious competitor is because the 'innovators' destroyed a key factor that made their units worth having. Usually it was battery life, although sometimes it was size. The Game Boy had the right balance to pleae a lot of customers, and the technology didn't allow much wiggle room here. It wasn't that Nintendo didn't have motivation to innovate, it was that Nintendo wasn't stupid enough to destroy the successful formula.
"Then GB advanced, color and DS all launched in the span of 3 years under competition from Sony."
The GB Advance (no d.) was out long before Sony was 'competition' in the handheld market. Additionally, it was in development long before Sony released the PS1. I don't think there's any doubt that Sony kicked Nintendo in the rear to innovate, and I agree that competition's good, but your impressions about Nintendo are a little skewed.
"Derp de derp."
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.
Looks like the end of the world is coming. Sony ACTUALLY admitted to a design flaw before the US release and they will FIX the problem as opposed to releasing it anyway.
Sony appears to have admitted that the square button even when not sticky is still less responsive than the other buttons.
It says so here.
The buttons that completely broke needed to be fixed. I had thought that Sony was fixing the buttons that jammed for free as that was a defect whether the misaligned sensor was or not.
Aside from the fact that the CEO of Sega America made some incredibly retarded decisions, by far the biggest mistake Sega made was releasing the 32X. Support for the Sega CD declined. Then a few games that used the Sega CD and 32X came out. Then only a year after the 32X came out, the Saturn was released. Gamers and publishers got burned all around. The Saturn was hard to program, but potentially more powerful than the Playstation. If gamers and publishers hadn't sworn off Sega, the console would have had higher sales and games available.
The Game Gear was released in 1990. The Sega CD was 1991, but the 32X wasn't until 1993. The Game Gear failed because of poor battery life and a higher price. Solving those would have increased sales and publisher support, which would have raised sales. Also, I don't think the Game Gear was a failure. Games were made for it for at least three years. The Jungle Book and The Lion King were some of the last games for it in 1994. It didn't unseat the GameBoy, but I'm sure it made money for Sega and the publishers who released quality games.