Tipster striegs, has let us have it for missing out on this story. It's not that we missed it. It's that we didn't
quite know what to do with it.
Almost all indications are that Kutaragi was answering a question about the general design of the PSP, not the square
button, when he took on a very defensive, some would say "high and mighty", tone. There hasn't been much of a
clarification from Sony, so it's open to debate whether or not Kutaragi had a Dr. Evil moment. Man, these Sony folk
have some serious ego issues. Did Kutaragi just get sick and tired of apologizing? His company has been doing a lot of
it recently. Only his therapist knows for sure.
Striegs writes:
I can't believe you haven't posted anything about this yet. Apparently when Ken Kutaragi was asked about certain
PSP design flaws, most specifically the inaccurate square button, he defended with an argument that boils down to the
age-old topic of form over function. Quote: "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 on purpose. It is according to our
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."
Certain gamers are up in arms over these comments, accusing Kutaragi of laying the old
double deuce on Sony fans: essentialy, not only does form win out over function, Sony doesn’t even care about the
thoughts of its consumers.
However, accounts differ. Some articles defend Kutaragi by saying that the previous question dealt with the topic of
the PSP’s design in general, while others state that this was a direct response to the unresponsive square button.
Either way, it’s still bad press for Sony, a company which has come under fire in recent years for the PS2’s frequent
tendency to break down. To date, 4800 PSPs have been returned to due to defects, about 0.6% of the amount Sony has
manufactured.
The link goes to Spong (always good for an interpretation), but I’ve referenced facts from several other sources, including CVG, GameSpot, and IGN.
