Sony Screws Importers - Lik-Sang Closed!

[Antimind]

Hong Kong, October 24th of 2006 - Lik-Sang.com, the popular gaming retailer from Hong Kong, has today announced that it is forced to close down due to multiple legal actions brought against it by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Sony claimed that Lik-Sang infringed its trade marks, copyright and registered design rights by selling Sony PSP consoles from Asia to European customers, and have recently obtained a judgment in the High Court of London (England) rendering Lik-Sang's sales of PSP consoles unlawful.

As of today, Lik-Sang.com will not be in the position to accept any new orders and will cancel and refund all existing orders that have already been placed. Furthermore, Lik-Sang is working closely with banks and PayPal to refund any store credits held by the company, and the customer support department is taking care of any open transactions such as pending RMAs or repairs and shipping related matters. The staff of Lik-Sang will make sure that nobody will get hurt in the crossfire of this ordeal.


Full article here:
http://www.lik-sang.com/news.php?artc=3901

[Tynstar]

Sony strikes again!!!!!!!

No loss to me since I don't import any thing but that site had some cool stuff on it. Sucks for people that import stuff.

I like Sony reason

"A Sony spokesperson declined to comment directly on the lawsuit against Lik-Sang, but recently went on to tell Gamesindustry.biz that "ultimately, we're trying to protect consumers from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards, due to voltage supply differences et cetera; is not - in PS3's case - backwards compatible with either PS1 or PS2 software; will not play European Blu-Ray movies or DVDs; and will "

What a load of shit.  More reason to hate Sony.

[James]

I thought the EU was supposed to be a free market.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

Well they wouldn't be stopping this if it wasn't losing them money or illegal, so it seems they're justified. It's not like Sony just hates people having fun and wants to destroy the universe. There must be a motive, and it's most likely monetary or legal. And can you blame a company for trying to make money? Well yes, but they all do it so you just have to let it go.

[Cobra]

Okay... yeah, Sony couldn't just get their own stuff pulled from Lik-Sang, they had to spoil it for everyone.
They could of been a little more civilised.

So it's for the safety of others eh?
So I suppose exploding laptop batteries are perfectly safe then?

[TraderJake]

Of the big three, I thought Nintendo would be the company to shut down Lik-Sang, for they seem to be the most protective of their property rights. Way to go Sony for proving me wrong.

[ganonbanned]

I saw this on ben heckendorns site earlier, truly sad. 

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

Oh yes, we're all soooo broken up about it. No more importing hentai games for us.

 

[captain_nintendo]

It does suck for those who liked and used the site. I guess people will have to find another site.

[James]

Have any of us actually bought anything from them?

[Antimind]

I've bought plenty of stuff from them. Always came super quick and for the right price. Of course there are plenty of other stores I buy stuff from but this is the one I liked best. Fucking Sony. They weren't really doing anything wrong either. They used to sell a lot more stuff ("backup devices") that were pulled when Nintendo asked. They were always complying with companies' requests - if they were legit. Sony was dead wrong in this case. People from Europe can still get import PSPs and other goods elsewhere. They were full of shit in this case. Totally. They were just out to get some press and damn is it having a negative effect

[Cobra]

Wee!, lets turn this into a Sony hate thread. Here's more fuel to the fire for fans of Sega's Saturn (me), and possibly even some PC users.

Quoting an interview with IGN.com
"When we [Sony] brought PlayStation to the market in 1994, we introduced real-time graphics in 3D for the first time," Harrison commented, apparently dismissing SEGA's Saturn. "When Nintendo released N64 in 1996 and it also used real-time 3D graphics, did we say: 'Nintendo stole our idea!'? No, of course not. Such innovations are made possible because of the combination of technology, cost and manufacturing capacity."

Harrison also clarified that the PS3 controller design was not a last-minute decision, as some suspected.

"We've been working on that [motion sensitive controller] for a long time," he said, "and Nintendo has no doubt also worked on similar, if not identical innovations for a long time -- that's normal. That's technology. The difference between our strategy and everyone else's is that our controller, the PlayStation Dual Analog Controller, is the de-facto standard for videogames.

"I'd estimate that if you include controllers of the same shape from third-parties, more than 400 million were sold world-wide. That means we define the standard for the man-machine interface for games. Now we added an additional dynamic; freedom of motion."

Recently at the Electronic Entertainment Expo the only playable title using Sony's motion-sensing controller was the combat flight game Warhawk. When Phil Harrison was asked how many of the PlayStation 3's games would ultimately use the motion sensing feature of the controller he replied, "I'm expecting that every game uses this function in some way. We all move the controller when we play, whether you're playing a racing or a soccer game. Now, for the first time, we can also capture the primary input, such as the analog sticks, as well as the secondary movements the gamer makes; and then combine the two. This is an important advantage that only the PlayStation 3 controller offers."

Spiegel Online asked Harrison if he was concerned about the PS3 competing with the Microsoft's Xbox 360's ability to seamlessly network with PCs via Live Anywhere Harrison said, "No, this doesn't concern me and I don't think that it concerns the consumer. When you buy a game console, a primarily entertainment device, then you only want that. We believe that the PS3 will be the place where the users will play, watch movies, surf the web, and use other computer entertainment functionality. The PS3 is a computer.We don't need the PC."

Later on though, when asked about what sort of games he'd like to see come to PS3 and what sorts of games he found interesting Harrison emphasized about the importance of the social aspects of gaming, citing community creation in services like MySpace and Second Life as inspiration.

Spiegel Online pushed this issue, saying that to get to something like MySpace people need a PC. To which Harrison replied, "The PS3 has a browser, so you can access MySpace with it as well."

[Speedy_NES]

That sucks, I used to buy stuff from them back in late 1999-2000, always had good service.   I agree that Sony likely had a reasonable motive, but there are many means to solve such issues as has been mentioned previously in this thread. 

[Ando]

Argh, I read this yesterday. >_< Sony officially threw me over the edge with this one. Now where am I going to pre-order a Wii for no money down?!

[AndyC]

This isn't the first time Sony have done this though is it. They managed to shut someone else down at the start of this year for importing PSP's into the UK. I can't remember the name of the company. The only reason they were shipping PSP's into the UK is because Sony staggered the release dates again, so Europe was at the bottom of the list and Sony fans wanted the lastest bit of kit.