Kutaragi defends PSP design despite high defect rate

Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi has defended a design decision in the PlayStation Portable which has led to a high rate of returns for the console, saying that it had a "clear purpose" and "wasn't a mistake".

Speaking with Japanese magazine Nikkei Business, Kutaragi revealed that around 4,800 PlayStation Portables have been returned for repair since the console launched last month - around 0.6 per cent of the shipped units of the system.

The bulk of these repairs have been due to problems with the square button on the handheld, which is less responsive than the others on the fascia due to being too close to the edge of the system's screen.

However, Kutaragi was unapologetic about the design of the console, saying that the button was created in this way on purpose and that users and developers will "have to adapt" to this quirk of the controls.

"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 told Nikkei Business. "The button's location is [engineered] 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."