Sony gaming big cheese Ken Kutaragi has discussed the PSP's teething troubles in an interview with Japanese magazine Nikkei Business. In the article, he defends the design decisions made regard Sony's first gaming handheld foray, despite up to 4,800 returns taking place. That's 0.6% of the total number, based on of 500,000. The main 'square' button control is the primary niggle in question, and it apparently suffers from reduced sensitivity owing to its proximity to that lovely huge screen.

Despite these problems then, Kutaragi insisted that no mistakes had been made concerning the system's design, and that players and developers would adapt to this 'quirk'. "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," he commented. "The button's location is 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."

By Luke Guttridge