Haven't seen this posted here yet.

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

I know other game forums had some posts and some outrage shown at Sony for this. Some accusing Sony of shutting down a company (by filing multiple lawsuits in different regions - making it so Lik Sang couldn't afford to fight them) who was selling their own product. Others don't even care about the Sony part, but care because that's where you can get import DS games for example.

I haven't dealt with lik-sang to comment on my experiences about them, but this is definitely fueling the fire for Sony haters.

Discuss!

Well if they sold PSPs illegally then id say they deserve to be punished.

That's the thing, these guys have been in business for like, 10 years now? Sony can't get a solid lawsuit on them, so they're just filing so many that Lik-Sang can't afford the court fees and lawyers. Thus, out of business.

Lik-Sang is a great company, I have ordered quite a few things from them. The news of them being shut down pisses me off greatly.

Except they're going out of business. They're not getting punished, Sony gets nothing from it.

Also, they were the source of a lot of items, not just importable items, that had nothing to do with importing or exporting illegally.

They were sued buy all the gaming giants (Sony, Mircosoft, Nintendo) over time. It was only a matter of time before they went the way of the dinosaur. They did have some cool products though like the Smartjoy Frag.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]Except they're going out of business. They're not getting punished, Sony gets nothing from it.

Also, they were the source of a lot of items, not just importable items, that had nothing to do with importing or exporting illegally.[/QUOTE]

Yknow, you don't have to get something out of a punishment for it to be deemed a punishment, and technically they were importing illegally if they were selling Asian PSPs, as like it said things like voltage difference etc. mean that they didn't meet EU consumer safety standards. Therefore it would be illegal to sell them in Europe.

Which is why they provided adapters, and as mentioned on multiple sites, they did meet EU standards.

There are no differences between Japanese PSPs and European PSPs. There is absolutely nothing illegal about importing electronic devices into Europe. Lik-Sang was never doing anything illegal.

Here's what actually happened: Sony filed a whole bunch of idiotic lawsuits in the UK. Lik-Sang couldn't find/afford a lawyer in the UK, so each of those suits ended in a summary judgement in Sony's favor. Basically this is the same thing they do in their RIAA cases (Sony is the ringleader behind those too). It was never illegal! NEVER! It still isn't! If I wanted to I could carry a box of 110V AC motors into the UK and they couldn't do jack about it. Know why? Because it's not illegal.

If it were illegal this would have been a criminal case. It wasn't, it was a Sony-gets-its-panties-in-a-bunch civil case. Sony wasn't being a good samaratan by pursuing this matter in the courts. They're simply looking for a way to enforce their (illegal, but difficult to prove in anti-trust court) price-fixing tactics. The only company here you should criticize is Sony.

They didn't get punished--they got overwhelmed with lawsuits they couldn't pay to fight and had to go out of business. Read please, idiotboy.

1. That was merely a mistake in my reading of your post.
2. **** you.

My post has nothing to do with it, you made the mistake of not reading the whole thread, the article, or even what any of this was about.

Also, I've had better offers. Thanks though.

Nintendo profits up 72%, Sony profits down 94%.

I love it when I'm right. Don't you love it when I'm right?

I know I do.

It happens so often it's lost its charm.

Am I missing something, or does this have...nothing to do with anything?

It was the only active thread about how much Sony sucks.

....you're missing something.

A lot of something.

Almost clever.


Except you claim you're "right" when sony has, as of yet, not released their console and the majority of their losses comes from their lackluster (at best) MP3 player line, and their battery...incidents.

God they suck at batteries.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]Except you claim you're "right" when sony has, as of yet, not released their console and the majority of their losses comes from their lackluster (at best) MP3 player line, and their battery...incidents.

God they suck at batteries.[/QUOTE]Sony is taking a loss on console sales. They're also including a free Bluray movie (Talladega Nights) with each PS3, adding further loss of profits to the system. They will have to sell a lot of Bluray movies (most of which are made by Sony's film industry competitors, so they won't see any money on) and games (most of which are made by third-party publishers, meaning Sony only sees a relatively small amount of royalties) in order for the PS3 to be a commercial success.
The strategy Sony is using works for Microsoft because they are able to tank the loss, and did so in order to establish a beachhead in the console gaming industry. In Sony's case their console aspirations need to be a source of revenue because they no longer have any other major home electronics offerings that they can profit from.

That said, Sony isn't losing money at this point. They still managed to make a net profit of 14.3 million USD in the previous quarter. Of course their biggest competitor, Samsung Electronics, posted a net profit of $2.3 billion USD. So Sony, as a whole, is making a little over 0.6% of the money Samsung Electronics (alone) is making.

Well, some have speculated that PS3 can be do or die for Sony in terms of being a console maker. Hard to believe, but yes. With profits falling that much, shareholders are not going to be happy - also when they'll be taking losses in terms of actually selling a console.

More like as a business.

And it's looking rather...iffy.

yay, samsung > sony. because korea > japan!

...

kekekekkek ^___________________________^

No. As Yoshi just said, if the PS3 fails Sony - as a company - will cease to exist.

Sony is facing so many problems right now that they're difficult to list, but perhaps the most profound issue is their obsession with Bluray. Bluray uses, among other things, very expensive and very hard-to-make blue laser diodes. The Playstation 3, alone, is ravenously devouring the entire world's supply of these components. As an immediate consequence, during this - the single most important quarter in the lifespan of both HD-DVD and Bluray - there will be next to no market availability for Bluray players. The Playstation 3 is it.

So in steps miscalculation #2, the marketing problem. The Playstation 3 is the meanest, baddest home multimedia system ever created. Right? But it's still a Playstation. The key demographic of a video distribution format is still the average media-consuming public and the thought of having to buy a video game system to watch their Friends boxed set is going to give them pause.

Miscalculation #2.5: The price tag on the Playstation 3 is not sufficiently low enough to encourage new adoption of either a game system or a movie player.

and Miscalculation #3, a follow-up to the previous miscalculations: Even if millions of people buy the Playstation 3, if the system doesn't have an absurdly amazing attach rate it will kill Sony. Which means Sony needs to get off its butt and put out some amazing exclusive titles and work on some really, really good Bluray offerings.

Interestingly enough, if things went south the first part of Sony that would get auctioned off would probably be Columbia-Tristar. I say interestingly enough, because they're one of the driving forces behind Bluray (internally), they stand the most to benefit from having wide-spread adoption of Bluray, and they're the least likely division to go bankrupt as a direct consequence of Bluray adoption.

The universe must be about to implode, because I totally agree with Jon'C.

Sony sucks.

Although Jon`C exaggerates (quite a bit) his point, it stands.

The PS3 is make or break for Sony, depending on how well it does, Sony may be around to make, not just a PS4, but anything/everything.

And they have some pretty swank products.

Somewhat depressing.

Um... why?

Just because we disagree about one thing doesn't mean we're enemy warriors of destiny, doomed to fight each other at Ragnarok.

But if we are I totally call being Viðarr.

So would you all prefer Final Fantasy XIII on XBox360 or Wii?

Incidentally, Square-Enix has stated that while they want to continue to support the Playstation, they do not want it to be the clear victor in this round. So they have announced plans to release a Final Fantasy on all three major consoles.

Translation: They've seen it before, they know when the tide is changing.

A final fantasy as in.. the real one on PS, and a chrystal chronicles type thing on the others? Or just the same game on all 3?

Is it fantastically difficult to port on all three (two?) consoles?

If there was an icicle's chance in hell of that happening, I'd love to see FFXIII on the Rev.

From what I've read, yes, yes it is.

[QUOTE=Cool Matty]A final fantasy as in.. the real one on PS, and a chrystal chronicles type thing on the others? Or just the same game on all 3?[/QUOTE]Right now the assumption is that it's going to be a Crystal Chronicles-like deal, but we don't know for sure yet.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]If there was an icicle's chance in hell of that happening,[/QUOTE]If Sony goes out of business or if the Playstation 3 bombs I really doubt Square-Enix is going to waste a game.
Wii.

It's a bit more complicated than that.

PS3 is by far the hardest console to program for. Ever. I have it on good authority that the PS3's implementation of OpenGL ES is stupid, horrible, and virtually useless. PS3 games are being written for the graphics hardware in exactly the same way PS2 games were written - using low-level, poorly-documented interfaces. Sony does not know how software development works. They're as good with game programmers as a Slashdotter is with girls.

360, by comparison, is like spending a thousand years in a harem full of large-breasted Kiera Knightleys for every line of code. And the 360 isn't appreciably slower than the PS3 so there isn't an issue with art assets.

Wii is a similar programming challenge as the 360. Both Nintendo and Microsoft are great with software developers, toolsets, APIs and documentation, but because the Wii has a completely unique control style and significantly slower hardware it would pose a game design challenge as well as an artistic one. Virtually every resource would need to be remade for the Wii version.

If the Final Fantasy XIIIs are going to appear on non-Playstation hardware, it will appear on the 360. It will not appear on the Wii.

Are you going to call the Gamecube the "Dolphin?"

Are you going to call the Nintendo64 the "Ultra64?"

No.

THEN STOP ****ING CALLING IT THE REVOLUTION. IT'S THE WII.

I'm not Cool Matty.

And yeah, its the Wii.

Jon`C....I DISSAGREE!

<.<

I'm not Greenboy.

I don't even know who that is, but I'm definitly Jörmungandr.