January 25^th, 2005 (11:54am) - In a recent interview with the Nikkei Business magazine Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) president Ken Kutaragi addressed a hardware issue with the PlayStation Portable that has resulted in approx. 4,800 units of the handheld to be returned to Sony for repairs.

Kutaragi addressed that the "square" button on the PSP is less responsive than any of the other face buttons due to the fact that the button is close to the handheld’s 480x272 LCD screen. There hadn’t been enough room to put that button’s detection switch directly underneath, thus it was moved to the side causing it to become less responsive and even causing it to stick at times.

Kutaragi is unapologetic about the situation "This is the design that we came up with. There may be people that complain about its usability, but that’s something which users and game software developers will have to adapt to. 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 [architectured] on purpose," Kutaragi added. "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."

"I believe we made the most beautiful thing in the world," said Kutaragi, praising the handheld. "Nobody would criticize a renowned architect’s blueprint that the position of a gate is wrong. It’s the same as that."

It is very likely that NTSC and PAL PlayStation Portable units will suffer from the same design flaw.