RSSSony Sues Lik-Sang Over PSP Sales
By Nate Mook | Published August 8, 2005, 11:55 AM
Sony has made no secret of the fact that it is not happy with retailers selling its PlayStation Portable to consumers in markets where the device has yet to launch. And on Monday, the company filed suit against Hong Kong based Lik-Sang.com for shipping the PSP to customers in the United Kingdom.
Lik-Sang has proven a popular online store for impatient gamers. The PSP won't launch in the UK until September 1, but customers can order the Japanese version of the portable gaming console for less than the price set by Sony for the PSP's European launch.
"Lik-Sang's sales are an unlawful interference with Sony's economic interests," Sony wrote in its legal correspondence, claiming Lik-Sang advertised the PSP in a "dishonest manner."
Representatives of Lik-Sang say they were surprised by the lawsuit, and believe they are well within the laws of Hong Kong to sell the PSP anywhere in the world.
"Sony wants to completely cut hardcore gamers away from items released in Japan or anywhere else outside their own country," said Pascal Clarysse, Marketing Manager for Lik-Sang. "A very active part of the gaming community has been enjoying Japanese gaming culture for over two decades, and that's what the Empire is now willing to destroy."
Sony is additionally suing Lik-Sang for copyright infringement following the retailer's posting of the PSP manual in early June. The company is asking a court to prohibit Lik-Sang from selling the console, games and accessories to customers in the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA).
Lik-Sang intends to fight the charges and will continue selling Sony's PSP in the UK and elsewhere.
Lik Sang is usually expensive. Glad to hear they changed a bit. Hope sony loses and maybe learn their lesson. But that's an unlikely scenerio.
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|I pre-ordered my PSP in March last year from Lik Sang. I waited until December until I received it. I was well chuffed with the professionalism of Lik Sang and I personally consider them to be an asset to the globalisation of gaming. Sony are a bunch of Tw***, IF they were THAT concerned about it, why didn’t they release the PSP in all countries simultaneously??, I know there might have been a shortage, but they could have split the consignment between the countries. I think the main reason for Sony feeling like this is because of the hacking that’s going on, they would have preferred it if they could have released the PSP with version 2.0 firmware, BUT A'Gee is right, they are f***ing greedy. Why else would they use proprietary peripherals?, cause they wanted to corner the market, Tuff Luck Sony, the PEOPLE rule this world not corporations like you !!!
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|Indeed, they should be more interested in combatting counterfeight goods, rather than legally purchased import goods.
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|The recoed companies do the same thing! Popular CDs appear earlier in certain markets than others. And they b**** about souvenir hunters bringing home advance imports. This greed also leads to P2P piracy; because some releases never appear in the stores at all. Games are found in the same places.
It's all part of their international price fixing racket too, not unlike those discounted Windows XP starter editions in some places. And what about the military people who bring home TVs and stereos?
Who really cares as long as the merchandise is not counterfeit or stolem property...
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|A sale is a sale to Sony. They should care less. The availability of import games/consoles is only going to fuel the excitement on release! It'll save them money in advertising, as those that already have the consoles will have shown them off to those that want them.
Of course, the real issue is that all this means that SCEE are missing out on sales. But, that is their own problem. They have a lot to answer to: delaying the sale/launch of the PSP, not releasing the PS2 HDD, removing the HDD support from SOCOM 2... the list goes on.
Thanks to the region-free ability of the PSP I hope that SCEE suffers. It's like a beautiful kind of Karma!
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|Outragous that Sony can withold the EU market of PSP's and then at the same time, sue other retailers for importing them.
Sony, this is a problem purely of your own creation, I hope any judge can see this.
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|me live in hongkong, nvr heard of lik-sang.. :p
as far as i understand, 1 x PSP + some games + "value pack" (several months ago) here costs sth less than HKD$2,000 (~USD$256), it's very cheap, cheaper than an "ordianry" mobile phone
but i m brave enough to say the technology (i mean consumer market) here is somewhat 1~2 years ahead of USA, e.g. we hv 3G for more than 2 years, 1000MB residential broadband for half a year.. k600i? your OUT! interactive tv?! cm'on, more than a decade~!!!
but i do think there're some "political" reasons behind.. "China" vs "Japan" vs "Hongkong" vs "Taiwan" (most hongkongers believe there will be war between "China" & Japan + / Taiwan as soon as neX yr...
also, most "Chinese" hongkongers can speak / read most Japanese infact..
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|....wtf are u rambling about?
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|The buyers would be very happy.
Only Sony would not be.
Say NO to greed!
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|"How DARE you sell our product for less than WE want to sell it for?!" Ridiculous to anyone else?
I hope they lose but knowing that they've probably got anyone hearing this case in their pocket, I doubt they will.
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|Wow...greedy bas****...I hardly order anything from LikSang but to hear that they are selling it for cheaper than $ony's official price...that's a surprise...apparently, $ony is more greedy...
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