Lik-Sang is Finished. Sony is the new Nintendo.

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Lik-Sang is no more. The highly popular, importing site, comes to a close; Thankz in large part to Sony. The slight touch of irony I find in this--was that one of the great things about Sony back in the PS1 era was in how it was the first manufacturer to bring games to Europe and the US that would have never reached those regions otherwise, like JRPGs and the such.

Important Notice: Lik-Sang.com Out of Business due to Multiple Sony Lawsuits
Tue Oct 24 2006 21:58:51 Hong Kong Time - Corporate Info

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - OUT OF BUSINESS NOTICE

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.

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 not be covered by warranty".

Lik Sang strongly disagrees with Sony's opinion that their customers need this kind of protection and pointed out that PSP consoles shipped from Lik-Sang contained genuine Sony 100V-240V AC Adapters that carry CE and other safety marks and are compatible world wide. All PSP consoles were in conformity with all EU and UK consumer safety regulations.
Since I actually import from Japan because there are games they don't release in the USA like dating sims(or manga anime based titles that wont make its way over here for a few years), it would be a huge, huge travesty if Sony went after other import sites like YesAsia or PlayAsia because they happen to sell games and consoles not for the Western markets.

**** Sony, this pisses me off more than the other stuff they have done so far. What is terribly ironic is that most importers do double dip and buy the domestic release of the game when it comes out in their country.

What is even more ironic is that games have become huge hits because somebody imported it and asked for a USA release, (Hello ? Phoenix Wright and Ouendan).

This really pisses me off alittle to much, and if they start chasing after PlayAsia there will be hell to pay. And if they stop import shops....may god have mercy on their pathetic souls. Kill Ken Vol 1(Kill Bill remark) will be in full effect for each of their asses.

Sure, im totally overreacting alittle to soon, but this seems like only the begining, it's quite inevitable, but I sure hope im wrong. Afterall, where else will I buy my Dating Sims and Visual Novels? I know no american companies will release them, so how the hell will I get my Dating Sim or Visual Novel fix if I can't get them anymore? Where can I buy my OST's and Japan region consoles?(not that I buy Japan region consoles, but the option should be there) Where can I get my limited edition artbooks and keychains, and figurines from? How about other quirky Japanese games that would never make it here like the Idolmaster that is too Japanese for the american Xbox 360 audience.

Seriously, if they stop import shops I might as well stop gaming althogether. What I don't understand though, is why Sony had to sue Lik-Sang to bankruptcy, instead of just stopping psp/ps3 sales. Granted I wouldn't be able to import PSP games anymore, but at least i'd be able to import Wii and DS games.

When Nintendo sued Lik-Sang for selling GBA flash cards they were at least trying to stop piracy, and all that happened was they stopped selling that one particular product. Alright, so I guess my geeky, childish *****ing ends here for the moment. Anyone else bothered by this news ?
 
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That's not fair to Nintendo... they haven't attempted to rootkit their customers yet lol
 
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Ouch.

SONY strikes again. o/

[/sarcasm]
 
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Sony keeps digging that hole. Sony should be happy that we're wanting games that aren't released here. But I guess they're being stupid again. Nintendo was stopping piracy. Thats good. Sony is stopping authentic games from going to other countries. Thats not only bad, it's stupid.

I'd like to see what law they broke. If the game is authentic and THEY bought them from sony and they're only selling those games to other countries, it's not illegal. We're not talking about illegal drugs here. We're talking about video games in another language.
 
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I'm not much of an importer and never heard of Lik-Sang, but I do know of playasia and it would unfortunate if they were to go out of buisness.

I don't hate Sony and never have...But what is the gain of this event for anyone?
 
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I don't even understand this from SONY's point of view.

It's not like they're losing money on it.

People are still buying their consoles and games.

Sometimes even more than once - Japanese or US or EU.
 
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Thats a dumb business decision... I could personally care less about gaming anymore. But again, poor decision made on Sony's part.
 
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I think that in this case, Sony simply wants to have complete control of what goes where. Basically we're talking about content manipulation and marketing. They don't want to have consumers' focus drawn to anything they're not directly marketing as it might change the ecconomics that they've based their decisions on. They might be losing money from sales to Lik-Sang, but it might cause on overall profit from a marketing standpoint and how much they're paying out in that regard. Furthermore, since lik-sang was also a distributor of unliscenced peripherals, they might feel that they're infringing on Sony's right to create and distribute hardware. The bottom line is that Sony has a particular marketing strategy in mind and doesn't want to deviate, adapt or evolve since in the end, it's all about money, not consumer satisfaction. However, if Sony did have half a brain, they'd realize that there IS a solid market for a lot of these import titles/equipment that lik-sang sold. They just probably don't want to risk the financial investment on the chane that it won't pay off. However, that being said, Sony is still probably the most willing to chance stuff over here and in Europe.

*edit*

That being said, I'm really quite glad that I got my PS2 controller adapter last month when I did :p

-Karrde-
 

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"Sony has issued a response to GamesIndustry.biz denying responsibility for closure of the popular online shop, alleging "sour grapes" on Lik-Sang's part. Basically, since they didn't show up to contest the case in London, therefore incurring no costs, and haven't paid the amount awarded to Sony, there is little reason -- save for the anticipated losses due to an inability to sell Sony products to Europe in the future -- that Lik-Sang should have been forced to fold. Something sounds fishy here, but we're not experts in international trade. The rabbit hole goes deeper."

Either way, I couldn't care less as I don't buy import games. It's a shame for those that do I suppose.
 
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KarrdeKNR said:
I think that in this case, Sony simply wants to have complete control of what goes where. Basically we're talking about content manipulation and marketing. They don't want to have consumers' focus drawn to anything they're not directly marketing as it might change the ecconomics that they've based their decisions on. They might be losing money from sales to Lik-Sang, but it might cause on overall profit from a marketing standpoint and how much they're paying out in that regard. Furthermore, since lik-sang was also a distributor of unliscenced peripherals, they might feel that they're infringing on Sony's right to create and distribute hardware. The bottom line is that Sony has a particular marketing strategy in mind and doesn't want to deviate, adapt or evolve since in the end, it's all about money, not consumer satisfaction. However, if Sony did have half a brain, they'd realize that there IS a solid market for a lot of these import titles/equipment that lik-sang sold. They just probably don't want to risk the financial investment on the chane that it won't pay off. However, that being said, Sony is still probably the most willing to chance stuff over here and in Europe.

*edit*

That being said, I'm really quite glad that I got my PS2 controller adapter last month when I did :p

-Karrde-
unfortunately, any and all arguments with regard to titles which are japanese only, have nothing to do with sony. only the dev companies and producers.
 
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"Sony has issued a response to GamesIndustry.biz denying responsibility for closure of the popular online shop, alleging "sour grapes" on Lik-Sang's part. Basically, since they didn't show up to contest the case in London, therefore incurring no costs, and haven't paid the amount awarded to Sony, there is little reason -- save for the anticipated losses due to an inability to sell Sony products to Europe in the future -- that Lik-Sang should have been forced to fold. Something sounds fishy here, but we're not experts in international trade. The rabbit hole goes deeper."
Im not sure I understand. So let me get this straight, Sony is basically saying, that a company that is successful, well known, has a good reputation and a lot of people use went out of business for no reason? And that this same company is the one Sony had been sueing multiple times ?!

Like, whatever. Just like they aren't responsible for bleem's demise either(but that wasn't good for the industry so that was perfectly fine). This is a typical Sony response at this point. They have to be 100% responsible, they probably just did it in a roundabout way by filing suit in every country. Afterall, how is one small company supposed to defend anyway ?; I currently just went through KCM over this crap. I might have to take out the rubber gloves, a bottle of Hand Sanitizer, and once again, take my anger out on my parents kitchen.

But yeah, moving away from my craziness over the matter--

I think that in this case, Sony simply wants to have complete control of what goes where.
I was just thinking the same thing. Their obviously going to have trouble reaching a suitable number of PS3's for NA and JP and need every last one of them going to the correct point of origin.
 
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**** SONY. Now I have to pay $30 more bucks here for imported games. :(
 
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~*Logan*~ said:
Sony keeps digging that hole. Sony should be happy that we're wanting games that aren't released here. But I guess they're being stupid again. Nintendo was stopping piracy. Thats good. Sony is stopping authentic games from going to other countries. Thats not only bad, it's stupid.

I'd like to see what law they broke. If the game is authentic and THEY bought them from sony and they're only selling those games to other countries, it's not illegal. We're not talking about illegal drugs here. We're talking about video games in another language.
I think Sony just wants to make less profits.
 
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**** you Sony!

That said, I don't import games. I don't see what the big deal is.
 
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Reselling any game is technically illegal when done on such a scale. Plus don't you need a mod chip to run them?

But whatever. Japanese games suck anyway. I'm not going to bother responding at length otherwise.
 
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Is this possibly because ps3 is going to play all regions? or am i completely wrong here :scared:
 
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SaiyanPrideXIX said:
Reselling any game is technically illegal when done on such a scale. Plus don't you need a mod chip to run them? .
Unless you have a JPS2, which a lot of my friends have purchased for playing things like pop'n music, Beatmania IIDX, etc.

The Big Skiwan said:
Is this possibly because ps3 is going to play all regions? or am i completely wrong here
That'd actually make sense to some degree. I still maintain that it's because sony has a particular marketing plan and doesn't want to have outside variables interfering.
 
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and I was literally just about to order me a usb adapter thingy to use my guitar hero controller on FoF,


balls =/
 

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