20th December 2004, 1:52 PM
Quote:Rumor #2: The first batch of PSPs to hit the Japanese market was riddled with defects.
Source: Numerous sources, the most notable being Engadget.
The official story: SCEA reps directed us to SCEI reps, who were unavailable as of press time.
What we heard: According to dozens of forum posts and lower-end game sites, many of the first PSPs released suffered from a variety of defects, including "dead pixels, dead drives, analog sticks not working and even falling off, and even screens with dust and 'air bubbles,'" according to Engadget. A more-spectacular alleged problem was the so-called "Master of the Flying UMD Guillotine Trick." According to reports--one of which even featured video evidence--if you twist the PSP a certain way, the UMD drive opens, causing the disc to come flying out like a throwing star. Luckily, GameSpot can address both of these rumors head on. While in Japan last weekend, GameSpot editors did observe some PSPs with dead pixels, but did not see any evidence of the other defects. As to the flying-disc glitch, we were brave enough to use one of our precious PSP units to test the theory. We stabilized the unit with our left hand, turned forward ever so slightly with our right and--SHAZAM!--out the disc popped.
Bogus or not bogus?: "Riddled" is a bit extreme, but there were defective models. Not entirely bogus. As for the flying-disc trick: Not bogus, in our experience.
Sometimes you get the scorpion.