Results tagged “examples of damage control in gaming”

Examples of Damage Control in Gaming is a weekly feature where we look at the past and present of damage control done relating to video games from within the industry and outside it. While it will present an informative look at a particular topic, each entry will also be opinionated as well.

You probably already know the specifics about the Xbox 360's infamous Red Ring of Death, which occurs whenever three red lights circle around a (hopefully not "your") 360, signaling its demise. No one really wants to bother with calling Microsoft's hotline to have them send a "coffin" to send your 360 in for "repairs" while dealing with their questionable customer service -- though they'll repair your unit, you'll usually get a refurbished one back. Then you have to hope one of the refurbished ones are reliable, or you'll be stuck in an ostensibly perpetual loop of RRoD consoles.

But again, that's the stuff everyone knows about (or sadly experienced). What's more interesting these days is the story of how the RRoD problem itself entered itself into the public eye, and how Microsoft completely denied it initially.


Dean Takahashi, a writer for Venture Beat, chronicled Microsoft's rather problematic and complicated history with the 360. When the problem first emerged and happened only to a few first victims, they had trouble getting a response for what happened to their unit because of the lack of prevalence of the failures. That really isn't a surprise either; when people have spent a good deal of cash on a console and dedicated a lot of their gaming time to it, they'll feel as if they're OK in denying any kind of supposed problems being discussed. That's because there's always defective hardware around, and these first few victims were written off as unfortunate occurrences with the usual faulty hardware. Statistics say that around 3-5% of all products are defective, which is what Microsoft said their 360 defects were. You really can't blame gamers for not believing the problems initially.

It's perfectly fine to blame Microsoft, though, who basically publicly decried the fact that it had any real problems. Takahashi explains that the problem with the 360 existed ever since its inception, and that Microsoft knew issues with it were bound to arise someday soon. Their initial denial of any widespread problems when the first issues popped up were an early attempt for them to cover themselves while they braced for the inevitable.

Microsoft soon found that they couldn't keep word of this to a minimum when more owners started having the same problem later in 2006, when gamers took to blogs and message boards to spread the word that the 360 had some kind of internal problem that caused certain units to overheat. Not too much later, new statistics were created saying that the units had around a 33% failure rate, a number mainly pertaining to launch units and the subsequent iteration known as the Zephyr. Microsoft had no choice but to offer an extended warranty covering owners who experienced this specific problem (but no other problems) for three years since the console's launch.


This came as a surprise because of the original Xbox, whose internal problems were thankfully minimal and were nothing compared to the PS2 -- whose share of problems has definitely been eclipsed by the 360. But knowing Microsoft, it really isn't too surprising. This is the same company responsible for the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) that became way too prevalent in a lot of desktop computers, though that was more widespread seeing as how more people own desktops than 360s. Still, it was an embarrassment for everyone involved with Microsoft and the operating system in the computers themselves. The RRoD won't be as infamous as that, but it's still a blight on Microsoft's history.

Thankfully, most of the newer units - that's the Falcon models and its progeny -- adhere to the pre-established statistic of a 3-5% failure rate (or perhaps a tad higher; just a tad). Newer owners of the units should see less of the problems pertaining to the RRoD, but that doesn't mean that there won't be other potential problems for them. Like, oh, E74.

Examples of Damage Control in Gaming is a weekly feature where we look at the past and present of damage control done relating to video games from within the industry and outside it. While it will present an informative look at a particular topic, each entry will also be opinionated as well.

Perhaps anyone who writes about the various forms of damage control in the gaming industry is going to miss David Reeves, Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe's now-former president. His voice will be missed about as much as people like Peter Moore, Kaz Hirai (from a more public eye, though he still comes out to give material), and, in a way, Ken Kutaragi. But Reeves was one of a kind; his quotes have more of a "what the hell is this guy on?" style to them, the best of which have been collected by Eurogamer for your reading pleasure. Reading these quotes can make anyone sad that he's leaving Sony, even if they don't write about stuff like this.

But yeah, he's leaving. Thankfully, he had a few things to share with everyone before he departed at the end of last month. His final claim for the PS3 (at least with Sony), is that he believes that the system will be dominant within the next three to five years. An awfully grandiose claim considering how it's doing on the market right now. And with the way Sony is approaching marketing the product, especially in the US and Europe, it's impossible.


The PS3 has actually picked up in Japan a bit due to the release of a few key games (White Knight Chronicles and Demon's Souls, for instance), a glorious demo, and the fact that all of that country's citizens apparently own a Wii and have no use for that other system from the American company. Sony of Japan has actually done pretty well with making the PS3 a veritable product in the last few months -- even if their Japanese studios are seemingly in stasis. But while their American and European divisions are pumping out the titles, the system isn't selling mainly because of it's asking price. Oh, and the fact that the majority of the public currently doesn't care for Blu-Ray just yet.

Given the 360's installed base in the US and comparing that to the PS3's, and the fact that the latter is selling less and less every month according to the NPD, Sony is currently on the wrong track. But it's definitely not too late for Sony to gain some steam in the markets where their presence is sorely lacking. Europe is still a toss up between the 360 and PS3, but the US is a lost cause for the PS3 to cause any "dominating."


Of course, none of them are going to beat the Wii anytime soon in any territory, but ask Sony about that and I'm sure they'll tell you that they're not competing with them at all. Microsoft would probably say the same thing.

The funniest thing about his quote is the familiar sound of it. It's almost exactly like something he said from a Eurogamer interview from E3 2007: "PlayStation 3, you will see, will be far and away the winner when you look at it by March '08. They really, really will. It's something that is going to be a slow burner, and suddenly it's like a tsunami; it will just overtake you." And man did it ever!

So yeah, I'm going to miss David Reeves. For all of his talk that was either totally farcical and perhaps even detrimental to Sony, you have to wonder what the other corporate arms think if it. Stuff like indirectly advocating piracy on the PSP surely isn't great for the company as a whole, but for all of that, he did get them some free publicity. And I guess that counts for something.

Examples of Damage Control in Gaming is a weekly feature where we look at the past and present of damage control done relating to video games from within the industry and outside it. While it will present an informative look at a particular topic, each entry will also be opinionated as well.

I had high hopes for Nintendo at the beginning of this generation. A lot of gamers (read: too many) were puzzled, befuddled, and indifferent towards the Wii at its unveiling, a console whose intent would be to bring everyone together to play. The philosophy behind it would ostensibly be reflected in its software lineup, and would hopefully be the home of a console that wouldn't discriminate, but offer everyone something and a reason to purchase it. The problem there was that third-party developers were hesitant to spend money and develop anything for it, which was perfectly understandable given how unique and daring the console and its controller were. Since then, third-parties have stepped it up a bit, but it still leaves a lot to be desired.

But these days, that's no longer the problem, which in fact lies within Nintendo themselves. That initial promise that it would bring together everyone seems to be shattered, with a company bereft of any desire to partake in that when they feel they're apparently making enough money as it is. It's a plan that seemed perfectly fine in Japan until the beginning of this year, where Wii sales have dropped. Europe seems to be OK, but something puzzling is going on with Nintendo of America. Who knows when or if it will happen in the US, but if it does, the repercussions could be dire for a company that apparently seems intent on shunning gamers recently.

Last year, I wrote a blog post explaining that Nintendo hadn't been ignoring their fanbase just yet, but I'll admit to the semi-optimism there (which was rare for a pessimist like me). Nintendo's software output throughout 2008 was totally indefensible, and it would've left the Wii to die if it wasn't for the console's audience of players who didn't know they liked video games before 2006. A game like Soma Bringer is highly regarded among people who played it in Japan, so Nintendo makes the executive decision to not localize it? Then you have Disaster: Day of Crisis, a game obviously designed for western audiences in mind; yet it skips the audience it was intended for. Yeah, something's going on here, and it doesn't look pretty if you're American and like Nintendo.


And it's not getting any better either. I figured Fatal Frame IV would at least make it over here. It had a better chance, seeing as how a small-though-vocal audience had manifested after the release of the first three games in the US. A pity Nintendo acquired the worldwide rights, along with admitting that they have no intention of publishing the game in the US. Tecmo, who developed the games and localized the first three, expressed intent to bring it over, but was denied when Nintendo said it wouldn't give them the rights to publish it. Who knows why a company would acquire worldwide rights to publishing a game they had no intention of publishing everywhere. It does look like it might release in Europe, though.

Things aren't boding well for Another Code: R either, which will be called Trace Memory: Something-or-Other when, or if, it's released in America. It released in Japan in January to rather pitiful sales, and is already in the bargain bin there. Still, it's releasing in Europe on June 26th, and has a trailer that features voice acting, which was totally absent in the Japanese version (though this isn't saying that the actual game will have voice acting. With Nintendo of America these days, unless it looks like a game that will attract the more "casual" audiences, it's not guaranteed to come to this territory. There's nothing wrong with localizing games like that, but wouldn't it be better if you could appeal to everyone, especially if you have the funds to do so?


So how does Nintendo respond? "Oh! You're sorely mistaken!" they'll respond - not precisely, but in so many words. "Surely you've witnessed Madworld and The Conduit. See, there are games on this console!" Sorry, trying to ask real questions in an interview will get you a bunch of non-answers, like in Game|Life editor Chris Kohler's interview with NoA's vice president of sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway.

The strategy of thrift publishing may be OK for the DS, where third-party support is excellent, but it isn't good for Wii. Look at the software lineup in the second half of last year for an example of how that doesn't work with that console. Though third-party support is starting to get better with games like Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Little King's Story, and Dead Space: Extraction, it still has quite a ways to go.  And that's a shame, because Nintendo could be helping with that. And who knows where The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is on the Virtual Console, a game that Europe and Japan got weeks ago.

Examples of Damage Control in Gaming is a weekly feature where we look at the past and present of damage control done relating to video games from within the industry and outside it. While it will present an informative look at a particular topic, each entry will also be opinionated as well.

If you had to name only one thing this generation of consoles had to be known for, it's definitely that the notion of a third-party exclusive title is almost ancient history. It's perfectly understandable, too. The Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 are at a rather even attach rate worldwide. In other words, there's no longer a massive gap between owners of one console compared to the others - the Playstation 2 had a huge lead last generation, and why it doesn't this time is a whole different (and huge) topic. It turns out that, surprisingly, companies like making money. Who knew?

But with the same titles on both systems, what would help consumers in making their decision on what system to purchase? The price is a determinable factor, and Microsoft seems to have that covered in the US at least; but it's still a close call in Europe, and they're clearly losing in Japan despite a cheaper price for the 360 in both territories. So companies need another ace to reel in the buyer, and Microsoft seems to have found that (as minimal as it is): exclusive downloadable content.


Shockingly, Sony has a problem with this. While games like Tomb Raider Underworld, Fallout 3, and Grand Theft Auto IV have released on both consoles, publishers are hoping you acquired the 360 versions so you have access to the DLC. How dare Microsoft try to get one up over them. Surely they're, in their own words, "writing cheques out of insecurity."

What I find most interesting here is the irony involved. In the last two generations, Sony was the company gobbling the exclusives left and right, making the offerings of competitors paltry in comparison in terms of third-party support. And now that the tables have turned on them (in an admittedly more miniature scale), a response like this makes them seem like they're desperate, even when they're trying so hard to portray Microsoft in that light. And it all just ends up looking silly for Sony. Not that we don't love it, of course!


It's true that this is rather distressing for PS3 owners who don't want to miss out on all of the content from third-party games like anyone else in the core gaming audience. But do you know who could be doing something about it? Why, Sony of course. And I don't think hurling attacks at the other company is going to help them, but for some reason they seem to be a big fan of that lately. Microsoft is a monolithic corporation, so it's no surprise to see them acting like one. They're basically utilizing tactics that Sony would've employed last generation, and you probably can't blame them for being upset that they're playbook is being used against them. But hey, who's stopping Sony from going ahead and fighting back with the same kind of tactics? Ah, the monolith moves in mysterious ways.

Not that I'm complaining! The more ideas for this feature the better, and I love Sony for giving me an ample supply of them. Especially when you think stuff like this is going to stop because of the exiting of David Reeves or even Ken "get a second job" Kutaragi. And you can't help but think it's all so adorable.

Examples of Damage Control in Gaming is a weekly (well, ideally) feature where we look at the past and present of damage control done relating to video games from within the industry and outside it. While it will present an informative look at a particular topic, each entry will also be opinionated as well.

You're most likely aware that the DSi released last week to brisk sales, even if you don't follow gaming very closely. That's because people paying attention to the DSi's launch are more than your average gamer; people like your parents, grandparents, and people within their social circle are also taking notice because of features and titles playable on the system they'll find to their liking. These aren't the hardcore experiences that the more dedicated gamers sing praises for across the net, but more low-key and easily accessible fare.

And it's undeniable facts like those that make Sony's recent PR decrying the DSi's launch all the more inane and silly. Actually, their response is more fortuitous than I originally thought. Last week, I decided to do this feature on Sega's Game Gear and their borderline egregious -- though nonetheless entertaining -- advertisements in a failed attempt to take the Game Boy's thunder. Sony here is displaying a lack of acknowledgment for past mistakes from other companies, in that trying to decry the opposing portable system with blatant falsities that everyone knows isn't true isn't going to work.


Here's what the PR said, verbatim (courtesy of Game | Life):

If Nintendo is really committed to reaching a broader, more diverse audience of gamers beyond the "kids" market that they've always engaged, there isn't much new with the DSi to support that. Significant gamer demographic groups are being ignored, and there continues to be limited opportunities for games from external publishers to do well on the DSi. Compare that with the PSP platform, where we have many blockbuster franchises from our publishing partners launching this year, representing a wide variety of genres and targeting diverse demographics. Games such as Rock Band Unplugged from MTV Games, Assassin's Creed from Ubisoft, Dissidia Final Fantasy from Square Enix, and Hannah Montana from Disney demonstrate the commitment that publishers have to the PSP. From our own first-party studios, we're launching unique versions of LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm, and we're also planning a steady stream of downloadable games -- both new titles and PSone classics -- to add to the content that PSP owners can already purchase wirelessly through PlayStation Store. and

- John Koller, Director of Hardware Marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America

Of all the ways to respond to the DSi's launch, this is the best they could come up with. And when people who aren't even in the PR business can think of better responses within the time span of minutes, you know it's bad.

Perhaps the most humorous aspect of the PR is the irony inherent in it. Sony says that Nintendo doesn't have much of an audience beyond kids, and that they have a lineup that appeals to all demographics. But the reality is the total opposite, and has been for at least a tad over three years now. The PSP really doesn't have much to appeal to its original target demographic of 18 to 34-year-old guys -- the guys that have dominated gaming for so long. You can prove this by merely taking a look around when you go into a public place. PSP users tend to fit into the aforementioned demographic, but every kind of person is playing a DS. This is knowledge the general audience has known for a good while, so why is Sony trying to convince them otherwise when they know it's futile?


Honestly, I'm not sure why Sony doesn't harp on the fact that Nintendo is ostensibly leaving gamers behind by leaving a number of their Japanese titles unpublished overseas, and saying that the PSP is the home for gamers. Sure, that's not entirely true either (though, thanks to Nintendo, it's becoming more and more true), but PR's aren't always known for their inherent truthfulness. In order to sell something, you have to bend the truth a little, but do it enough to convince specific customers that you have the definitive gamers system. Listing a number of titles that gamers would be interested in would help solidify the point -- especially for everyone who saw the abysmal lineup the PSP had for the majority of last year. That kind of PR may not work the best, but it would at least be something resembling sanity.

The subject matter is also rather unbecoming for a press release. Sega may have launched some hilarious-though-rather inappropriate ads insulting the Game Boy tech and people who actually thought it was viable entertainment, but at least they did that within the confines of advertising on TV and in magazines. Press releases are usually reserved for more professional banter from executives, which makes the above look even more bonkers.

I don't know who this is aimed at. Maybe it's for the kind of people who read Sony Defense Force and think it's actually a serious website. At this point, the PSP is going to need some divine assistance to propel its sales to the DSs level.

Nintendo's Game Boy turns 20 this year. The system that really started the real portable gaming frenzy has been around for a longer time than many of us initially thought. And even though the majority of the system's games haven't aged well, our fondness for them remains because of their ability to entertain us in times where we would've been bored out of our minds otherwise.

As rosy of a subject that is to reminisce about, that isn't the point of this post. The Game Boy had some competition, but none of them were able to come close to dethroning the portable juggernaut from the popular spot, even though you could rightly argue that the Neo Geo Pocket Color should have been more of a hit than it was. But the most memorable competition the system had was Sega's Game Gear. According to Sega - and the anti-Nintendo crowd that lurked in your schoolyard -- it was by far the better portable. Why just look and compare the two screens! One's in color and can be seen in the dark! Why play the past when you can play the future in your hands!?

But it's a shame that the color screen, a more ergonomics-friendly horizontal design, and popular Sega franchises were all the system had going for it. According to Sega, that's all you needed if you were following their borderline-condescending ad campaign. But the consumer knew to choose wisely, and realized that a prettier screen wasn't enough to dissuade them from observing the numerous flaws it had. When the system is as big as (though not as heavy as) a brick, you question whether it can correctly be classified as "portable" at all. The battery life was also abysmal and too expensive for the average person to keep up with. You needed six AA batteries for a mere five to six hour playtime, which was completely paltry compared to the 10-14 hours of battery life from four AA batteries the Game Boy provided.



But everyone knows that, in choosing a console to buy, it's the software lineup that matters the most. And here is where the Game Gear fell short the most. The Game Boy achieved popularity through a strong software lineup at appealed to a variety of gamers, including games like Super Mario Land, Tetris, and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Though the Game Gear had some games of comparable quality (like Sonic Chaos and Columns), it couldn't stand up to the competition it sought to dethrone in terms of both variety and quantity.

But that's not to say it didn't have a good deal of popularity. On the contrary, the system sold rather well, netting around 11 million users worldwide; a number that was nothing compared to the number of Game Boy users, but was acceptable for a stand-alone product. It was also the best competition the Game Boy had, and its popularity shut the doomed Atari Lynx down completely.


Though fate wasn't particularly kind to it, many of us share a great deal of nostalgia for the system. Like the Game Boy, it also kept us busy with fun in car trips that would've been otherwise dreadfully dull, and gave us good games to play at an acceptable pace. Unfortunately, that pace wasn't as rapid as the Game Boy, and parents weren't too fond of having to replace the six AA batteries repeatedly. Man, batteries. The dark days of portable gaming indeed.

Game Gear pic courtesy of The Old Computer Dot Com. Ad courtesy of 1up.com.

Examples of Damage Control in Gaming is a weekly (well, ideally) feature where we look at the past and present of damage control done relating to video games from within the industry and outside it. While it will present an informative look at a particular topic, each entry will also be opinionated as well.

Here's an example of a cover of a Playstation 3 game from the console's launch. The launch title Resistance: Fall of Man not only was good for a game that released with the system, but also contained one of the nicest and subtle covers we'd ever seen for a game in the first-person shooter genre. The Playstation 3 cases themselves are rather nice too, and it contrasts with the cover itself nicely, along with being sturdy.

So it's a shame that era had to come to an end. Starting last fall, Sony quietly launched a new campaign aimed at the window shoppers to send them a message when they happened upon an exclusive title. There's nothing wrong with doing that per se, but the way they decided to do it raised a few eyebrows because of the bizarre results.

Yeah, like that. That's the cover to LittleBigPlanet, which released in October of last year. One thing I personally liked about Sony was that they didn't engage in the "Only on" labels, but they've clearly rescinded that unspoken goal. But that's not the biggest change to the cover; it's actually that they seem intent on reminding you that this is a Playstation game three times -- four if you count the logo. It was pretty obvious with the Resistance cover that it was a Playstation 3 title, but isn't this just a tad overboard? It's a shame, too, because the cover would be better without the nearly egregious reminders.

Also a pity is that PSP titles haven't escaped this either. New release Resistance: Retribution also sports the changes to the cover design, though it's not as severe. Even though it's a bit late in the PSP's life span to worry about attaching such things to the cover.

A lot of gamers concluded that they did this because the loser of the current generation always does this, but that isn't completely true. Nintendo was one of the first companies that decided to make this popular in the early-to-mid 90s with games like Donkey Kong Country on the SNES and the Player's Choice titles for Game Boy, and they certainly weren't in a losing situation or mindset (well, not yet). That's the usual reason, but those two aren't always completely related.

Instead, the question we should be asking is "why?" In a time where the label is becoming increasingly irrelevant, Sony decided that now was the time to haphazardly slap this on their covers? The decision itself is more bizarre than the results, and it leaves us wondering if they actually think this is going to help their situation at all (because it isn't). Having bad cover art is one thing, but ostensibly superfluous labels ruining the covers of games with good cover art is quite a bit worse.

Examples of Damage Control in Gaming is a weekly feature where we look at the past and present of damage control done relating to video games from within the industry and outside it. While it will present an informative look at a particular topic, each entry will also be opinionated as well.

And yes, this is a day late. I was too tired last night to write it, and it would've been awful if I went through with it.

Anyone who plays RPGs often should certainly feel glad that the genre's localizations have come a long way from the "you spoony bard!" era of the 90s. These days, we tend to have accurate translations of just about everything in RPGs -- except things that can't be translated, like jokes only someone born and raised in Japan would get - along with acceptable voice acting to accompany specific scenes. For that, it's good we have companies like Atlus, XSEED, and Square Enix, the last of which actually takes the time to relocalize some games that were originally brought over here with a needlessly obtuse script (like, you know, Final Fantasy IV). Oh, and there's NIS America too, whose work usually ends up pretty good.

The key term there being "usually," for while some of NISA's translations turn out pretty good, they have a few that will slip through the cracks. The most popular recent localization of theirs is for Ar Tonelico 2: Melody of MetaFalica, which released for Playstation 2 in January. NISA knows how to do good work, but they sure didn't display that here. In fact, it might be their worst localization yet, and one of the worst in the last few years. This perhaps makes it on par with the localizations of The Legend of Heroes games on PSP from Bandai Namco - more from the Bandai side.


The main problem AT2's localization is the addition of glitches that weren't present in the original Japanese version. If you're playing the game, the worst one you'll run into is at the third-to-final boss, where if you don't defeat the boss within three turns, the game will freeze. There are also a number of other bugs as well that really should have been fixed before its release.

The script itself was apparently a rush job, evinced by some text being not translated at all, and frequently occurring misspellings - one person's name is misspelled two different ways throughout the game. There's also a problem with the way some lines are written, making some sentences sound awkward. Also, around 1000 lines of dialogue not only weren't voiced in English, but also had their vocal accompaniment removed from the Japanese version. Apparently there's still enough space on the disc for the dialogue, so why they actually went through the bother to remove the Japanese dialogue too is mystifying. And who knows why they thought it was necessary to rush it out, given that the game is being sold to audiences who would by it regardless of what time of the year it was released.


Given the plethora of problems, NISA are surely offering a fix to this, right? Well, apparently not, given their response. In fact, they've only responded (Warning: mild spoilers in the link) about the aforementioned glitchy boss battle, where they offered a strategy that will ensure that it's down in three turns. Of course, RPGs are all about the fun of creating your own strategy to take down opposition, so this figuratively vacuums up the fun that could be derived from that battle if the entire thing wasn't a mess. Heck of a job there, guys.

Of course, we'd all love to hear a response about the other problems the game has, but they've remained disturbingly mum on that. Fortunately, there's a fan patch out there that removes most of the particularly crippling problems and reinserts all of the removed Japanese dialogue. Still, wouldn't it be good of the company that made the careless mistakes in the first place fixed their problem themselves? Ideally, sure, but who knows what business logic NISA is operating on at the moment; but they've done a good job in telling us that it's not real world logic.

Edit: Apparently a retranslation project is underway. You can check out the details here. This is courtesy of fetjuel.

Examples of Damage Control in Gaming is a weekly feature where we look at the past and present of damage control done relating to video games from within the industry and outside it. While it will present an informative look at a particular topic, each entry will also be opinionated as well.

Any time a new piece of hardware launches, it's never any surprise to see that it has a few kinks that probably should've been tinkered with before it shipped. If a launch console escapes some initial problems, it's sadly considered a rarity. So it's a shame to see that so many hardware manufacturers continue to rush out products before the most thorough of testing to make a heavily-hyped release date. It's also a shame that people keep lining up to buy them on launch day -- well, whenever they're not doing so to sell it later for a profit.

The PSP didn't escape this problem at all. It wasn't a surprise to see the launch version have a few hiccups, given that it was the first portable gaming system with moving parts. But in the PSP's case, it was actually worse than many consoles before it. Problems like some systems not working and dead pixels were expected, and they only plagued a select few of them. The unique problem was the faulty and screwy square button; "unique" in the sense that it was a problem with every unit manufactured at launch and shortly thereafter.

The problem was that you had to press the square button a certain way to make it register all of the time. While that's perfectly fine in a game where you can casually press the button and know it'll register your command, it's disastrous for games that often require a quick and precise press of it (like any fighting game). And forget trying to perform rapid shots with it or holding it down for a lengthy period of time. When I played Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X on it, I had to remap the controls so that I didn't have to use the square button at all; holding the button down for a while would sometimes cause it to shift motion from the good position to the bad, making me fire charge shots before I wanted to.

Interestingly enough, the square button was defective by design. The PSP unit was built so that its beautiful and vibrant screen overlapped with the button, which is what caused a player to have to press it a certain way (to the right) to get a perfect response from it. It wasn't a surprise when people (me included) were quite peeved to hear that this was actually intentional.

The fact that Sony issued a response that was basically a nice way of saying "deal with it" didn't help either. Of course, they didn't admit the design flaw until after people discovered it en masse. "It's according to specifications," said former Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi. "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."

That's basic enough, but even better was the testimony to how much of a gift the system was to us lesser beings. "I believe we made the most beautiful thing in the world. Nobody would criticize a renowned architect's blueprint that the position of a gate is wrong. It's the same as that." Yeah, how could people criticize this beauteous work art? Legitimate complaints about a button not registering? Ah, how impetuous of us!

Actually, that's some damage control if I ever saw some, and bad damage control at that. And it's probably one of the reasons why Kutaragi is no longer at the company. Sure, a lot of corporations are bound to have designers that have over-inflated egos, but they're usually kept behind the scenes. Kutaragi was often vocal about his supposed genius, and people kept seeing right through it -- something that's not good for the company's collective morale. Though he's gone, there are still bad (though fantastic) efforts of damage control done by the company. But when it's providing entertainment and ideas for this feature, I'm not going to complain.