The GHZ Forum

Though this does not affect me as I do not usually import games, this is a rather irritating blow to those who do.
I see no reason for Sony's dickery, hoping they go to hell at the moment .

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

Granted that it is a fairly dickish move on Sony's behalf, it is to protect profits on their side.

However, Lik-Sang is not closing down because of Sony's lawsuits. Lik-Sang never spent a dime on legal fees battling these claims. Lik-Sang never went into court over this. They're simply shutting down, when Sony simply wants to halt the sales of PSP and PS3 consoles. In fact, it would be entirely possible to run the site without selling any PSPs or PS3s. Instead, they've shot themselves in the foot by closing off their profits entirely in the name of 'justice'.

By the way, Sony claims that the PSP sales to the management of SCE employees was done out of research, so you can take that with a grain of salt.

They're both assholes, make no mistake.

http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/741/741410p1.html

There must be some other reasons they targetted Lik-Sang specifically. Surely that's not the only commercial website that imports hardware for the European market.

Maybe their intent was to make Lik-Sang the proverbial severed head mounted on a stick in the village common area to serve as an example for others. Unless there were ulterior motives, these guys were just likely the first in a series of Sony shut-downs.

It might just be that it's the most notable one, or that it's been the most vocal in its opinions.

Baba O'Reily wrote:It might just be that it's the most notable one, or that it's been the most vocal in its opinions.

This is probably closest to the truth. Keep in mind that both Nintendo and Microsoft have also produced lawsuits against Lik-Sang, though it complied with those and continued to be in business. I honestly believe that if Sony hadn't bled them dry in legal costs, again, they would have just not sold PS3s in Europe.

However, fixing prices regionally in a global economy is a very scary prospect--it fundamentally goes against free trade. It's not just video games, either--take the importation of Canadian drugs into America. This certainly won't be the last time we hear of this crap.

Scarred Sun wrote:I honestly believe that if Sony hadn't bled them dry in legal costs, again, they would have just not sold PS3s in Europe.

The problem with that argument is that Lik Sang never entered a court room. They instead shut down completely without attempting to operate under Sony's conditions.