Sony has no plans to fix PSP 3000 screen issues

Following early reports from users that the new PSP 3000's ultra bright screen amplifies the visibility of scan lines during gameplay, Sony has issued a statement on the issue.

And it's not good news for players, as it seems these horizontal lines are here to stay.

Says Sony, in a statement reported by PSP Fanboy: "On some occasions, scan lines may appear on scenes where brightness changes drastically, due to the hardware features of the new LCD device on PSP 3000.

"Installed with this new LCD device, PSP 3000 offers more natural and vibrant colours on its screen, but the scan lines have come out to be more visible as a result of improving response time to alleviate the afterimages on PSP 3000. Since this is due to hardware specification, there are no plans for a system software update concerning this issue."

Clearly if it's a consequence of the brighter LCD screen, there isn't going to be a firmware update that'll fix that. Not unless it's a magic one.

To be honest though, we've scrutinised our PSP 3000's screen, both for our hands on with it and since the screen complaints arose, and the problem isn't one that's going to spoil your average person's gaming session. If it's a big problem in a particular game, setting the 'color space' option to 'normal' helps too. Although that also makes the colours displayed appear less vivid, like you're playing on an old PSP.

It's going to be a blow for Sony if the PSP 3000's launch is being blighted by hardware complaints. But then, there aren't many hardware launches that haven't been in recent years, so perhaps they won't be firing too many of their technical engineers over it, Alan Sugar style.