Lik-sang.com Closes Down

[CABBAGES]

I loved lik-sang ! I thought i liked sony . I got my psp from lik-sang i got my gp32 and a few more from lik-sang I actually got my gp2x for FREE from lik sang coz of their payback points thing. I also used to buy snes pads (100 at a time ) to sell on ebay and make a wee bit of money.

I was really wanting to buy a ps3 but i dont knwo if i will now. If SONY dont want us importing stuff then release them everywhere at the same time or here first (UK) BASTARDS!


Just read this in the gamespot thingy

" protecting European consumers "from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict European Union or UK consumer safety standards."

What a load of bollicks ! they are saying that their products they make and sell in other countrys are dangerous ?? and i actually use my ps2 plug in my psp so the only real difference with the uk and jap psp is the jap firmware and they give you a jap plug but any uk figure of 8 type plug works fine!

 

[DarkMetroid]

Every Mom and Pop shop has there own import section. This is no loss. Lik-Sang was a greedy little business trying to monopolize on import, and illegal merchandise. They had this coming from the very beginning. Lets all hope play-asia is next. Sony I support your war of terror.

The really sad thing is that none of this is going to affect anything.

The majority of consumers won't give a shit.

Boohoo cry me a river, but you are right the normal people won't give a shit. Good day sir.

Oh sure dark metroid, whatever man. Sure its not gonna hurt the sony fan boys, the nintendo fan boys or the Microsoft live snot nosed kids. Its hurting us the gamepark supporters, why do you say? GP32z is gone affecting us americans from getting local technical support, and I dont give a damn if you dont like america or any other country. A gamepark fan is a gamepark fan, we stand together against these corporate basterds from reliving the videogame crash of 1983/84. By feeding us crap quality instead or replay value. Stopping us from tampering with a product that we purchased, we buy something we have a right to do whatever the hell we want with it.Im not going by some guideline Bulls**t, I do what I want.

Now hongkong has lost one of its supporters, and its only gonna get worse. Youll see soon the corporation will rule, small companies like gamepark giving us what we want will be gone. People will no longer be able to take the plunge into creating new games. Instead were gonna be f****d up the arse with sequels like Devil May cry 16, Final Fantasy 35, GTA 27, MGS 60, Halo 55 & Super Mario bros 237. No more room for creativity.

There are other online gp2x retailers around. No one has to rely on shady Lik-Sang. Sony has every right to control the ability to who, and where they distribute their products to, and to ensure nothing illegal would be done with them as in the ability of playing pirated games. Not you, or I, or Lik-Sang.

 

[TelcoLou]

I just wanna play Oblivion

 

[piemaster]

There are other online gp2x retailers around. No one has to rely on shady Lik-Sang. Sony has every right to control the ability to who, and where they distribute their products to, and to ensure nothing illegal would be done with them as in the ability of playing pirated games. Not you, or I, or Lik-Sang.

What does Lik-Sang have to do with pirated games we're talking about importing Sony should know they'll never be able to stop piracy they just want to stop people in the EU getting an decent priced game or console.

It's not just Sony fans they've pissed off it's all the microsoft, nintendo, and even GP2X fans aswell.

 

[Redeeman]

i wonder how many of those here that says "ill never buy from sony again" actually has the guts to stand by it.

 

[PoisonedV]

Where the fuck am I supposed to get my GP2X now?

 

[DarkMetroid]

There are other online gp2x retailers around. No one has to rely on shady Lik-Sang. Sony has every right to control the ability to who, and where they distribute their products to, and to ensure nothing illegal would be done with them as in the ability of playing pirated games. Not you, or I, or Lik-Sang.

What does Lik-Sang have to do with pirated games we're talking about importing Sony should know they'll never be able to stop piracy they just want to stop people in the EU getting an decent priced game or console.

It's not just Sony fans they've pissed off it's all the microsoft, nintendo, and even GP2X fans aswell.

Its a very well known fact they sell, and advertise 1.5 psp's, and many other modifications for other systems giving them the ability to play, and run pirated software. Which Sony, and everyone else knows. Kinda hard not to do nothing about it when its in your face. It may be true piracy may never be stopped, but so are many other things. Just because it can't be stopped doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Sony is just doing there job, running a business. If you can't see that then uninstall your anti-virus because viruses will never be stopped anytime soon, and shutdown your firewall while you're at it.

 

[OrR]

Well, that's one more reason for me to NOT buy any future Sony stuff. No PS3 for me.
I wanted to buy it when good RPGs have been released, but Sony finally pissed me off.
I hope a lot more people react that way.

Exactly my thoughts. Sony has to die. This is the one thing I won't ever forgive.

 

[gaterooze]

Lik-Sang is no loss.

Tell that to the hanging-on Dreamcast industry. New DC games (which are mostly superb shooters) had a great outlet via Lik Sang -- with it gone, it may be difficult to generate enough sales to make new releases worthwhile.

On a personal level, I'd been meaning to get a "Universal Modified" Dreamcast from them, since my PAL unit won't play through import games which need to switch discs in the middle. At least I used up my loyalty points in my last order...

Sony has proved they don't give a hoot about real gamers, only the gumbys who buy each year's sport game roster update like robots.

edit: Lik Sang were a massive boost to the GP32 days -- I know they had some friction over the GP2X, but I'm sure they accounted for thousands of sales...

 

[Parkydr]

When start burning all the emulators for Sony machines then?

 

[piemaster]

Its a very well known fact they sell, and advertise 1.5 psp's, and many other modifications for other systems giving them the ability to play, and run pirated software. Which Sony, and everyone else knows. Kinda hard not to do nothing about it when its in your face. It may be true piracy may never be stopped, but so are many other things. Just because it can't be stopped doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Sony is just doing there job, running a business. If you can't see that then uninstall your anti-virus because viruses will never be stopped anytime soon, and shutdown your firewall while you're at it.

It doesn't matter if your PSP is 1.5 or not they can be downgraded to 1.5 for piracy and all version that require higher firmware to play you can get an emulator to get around that.

Microsoft did take Lik-Sang to court before for selling mod chips and Lik-Sang stopped selling them and took them all off the site. They have not had anything to do with modding consoles for a year that i have seen.

Sony didn't take Lik-Sang to court for piracy they took them to try and get more money out of Europe even tho the top directers of Sony Europe imported their PSP'S from Lik-Sang.

 

[Jarska333]

When start burning all the emulators for Sony machines then?

Naa, they make good enough product. My Sony MP3 CD Walkman is rather exellent. It isn't child's fault his father is a nazi warcriminal. Not usually, atleast. Of course, if a person in Germany in the 1920's fathers a child, it might be a burden too great to bear, because of the recession. He might have just lost his job, and ends up in the NSDAP. The child might be part of the reason, but surely no fault lies in him.

 

[jmetal88]

Dangit! I was wanting to buy another GP2X here in a month or so, and I wanted to take advatage of that $150 deal! :angry:

*sigh*

Maybe I'll just give up and buy a DS so I can pay Mario Kart against my friends in Stagecraft.

 

[clarky2o2o]

If my history is right Sega and Nintendo both took Lik-Sang to court for selling imported games and consoles but was told to piss off cos it was an infrigement on peoples human rights.
It is not illegal to import( except things like guns, knives etc) you are allowed to buy from wherever you won't and if Sony can't stop you.

Sony will probable try and stop people selling imports on Ebay aswell.

If Sony are losing money on all the consoles and games they sell in Japan and the US but hope to make up for it by overpricing the EU for them, treating us like this is not going to help.

Your history is right Nintendo Did try to sue Lik-sang Multiple times but mainly for importing and "damaging the common market" however they reached a setlement (or the judge told nintendo to get a life). From that point Lik-sang was mentioned in all official nintendo magazines (when it was worth reading) And both companies did record a boost in sales.

Where will i get my saturn stuff now

EDIT: omg I 4got that I used to get like $20 a month from them for advertising on my site. NO DAMN YOU SONY!

 

[DarkMetroid]

Its a very well known fact they sell, and advertise 1.5 psp's, and many other modifications for other systems giving them the ability to play, and run pirated software. Which Sony, and everyone else knows. Kinda hard not to do nothing about it when its in your face. It may be true piracy may never be stopped, but so are many other things. Just because it can't be stopped doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Sony is just doing there job, running a business. If you can't see that then uninstall your anti-virus because viruses will never be stopped anytime soon, and shutdown your firewall while you're at it.

It doesn't matter if your PSP is 1.5 or not they can be downgraded to 1.5 for piracy and all version that require higher firmware to play you can get an emulator to get around that.

Microsoft did take Lik-Sang to court before for selling mod chips and Lik-Sang stopped selling them and took them all off the site. They have not had anything to do with modding consoles for a year that i have seen.

Sony didn't take Lik-Sang to court for piracy they took them to try and get more money out of Europe even tho the top directers of Sony Europe imported their PSP'S from Lik-Sang.

Allot of those downgraders were recent. Before all those downgraders Lik-Sang had adverts on their site PSP 1.5 NEW! Thats not done discreetly, its done stupid. Any company would put a stop to that when its in your face, but the biggest thing though. They didn't get, or even ask permission from SCEE to import their products. Which is a no no, and big mistake. When you're running a global corporation you want to know where everything is being sold, and what its going to be used for.

Don't get mad at Sony. Get mad at Lik-Sang's ignorance. Sony is just following perfectly normal intelligent business protocol.

 

[DialTone]

A sad day indeed for retro-gaming enthusiasts (Lik-Sang were among the few places where hardware for older consoles, such as the Dreamcast, was available for purchase).

I've read a lot of comment about this already today - on Slashdot, BBC News, GameSpot and a number of other forums on which I am a member, and the conclusions seem to fall into one of several categories:

1. "Vote with your feet" - Boycott everything Sony and "stick it to them"

Reactions to this suggestion are either very positive, with people agreeing that this is likely to be their approach from now on, or negative stating "Sony won't care about the loss of a handful of potential customers", "They have far too much money", "Boycotts don't work. Period."

For me, I won't buy another Sony product again. Ever. This is not totally due to their latest actions against Lik-Sang, but a culmination of issues:

- Their (groundless) suing of Bleem LLC. This was heavy-handed in the extreme (although entirely expected).
- Their incompetence leading to a large number of CCD device failures in cameras
- The Sony VAIO (One of the WORST laptops I have ever seen in the reliability stakes)
- The recent debacle over exploding battery packs
- BetaMAX and MiniDisc licensing greed leading to the consumer (ultimately) losing out
- Sony (proprietary format) Memory Sticks - WTF were they thinking?
- The rootkit fiasco (What they were doing was almost certainly illegal yet went unpunished, and they failed to compensate those outside of the US)
- DRM issues causing delay to the PS3
- DualShock (rumble) patent infringments resulting in a loss of this feature as well as upcoming PS3 features blatantly plagiarised from Nintendo's upcoming Wii

Am I under the apprehension that my boycotting Sony will hurt them? Not especially. I choose do do this as a consumer - I am an individual who feels not just able but obliged to exercise my freedom of choice, and such choices I make are as informed as possible. If enough people were to stop behaving like sheep, and voted with their feet it would make a difference (as democractic societies illustrate - thanks to whoever mentioned this earlier). Whatever, I don't want to buy a Sony product for many reasons and so I won't. I suspect I am not alone.

2. Lik-Sang were such "nice guys" - why should this happen to them?

This appears to be a much-shared view

Lest we forget, Lik-Sang have built their business model around the black/grey market - Whether it be selling Mod-Chips and suchlike (yes, I know they stopped a while back), or exporting foreign models of hardware and software. It shouldn't come as too much of a shock when they are brought to task for it. Do I like the way it's been handled? Heck no! Does this increase my confusion about the legal system (in particular the relevance of a London court decision to a HK-based company)? Damn yeah!

I am as gutted as the next guy about recent events. Lik-Sang appear on the face of it to be reputable people to do business with, and purveyors of quality retro- and unique hardware (cos I sure as hell don't care 2 hoots about the PS3). But I can't help but feel that this was an inevitable situation, no matter how unjust or heavy-handed it is (or appears to be).

3. Buy a Sony PS3 when it's released and cost those buggers some money!

If you're planning to buy a dozen PS3 machines and either use them exclusively with FOSS (Free/Open-Source Software), or just stick them in your attic collecting dust, then go for it! But of course selling these machine on means that the prospective purchaser is likely to buy new games for it, and new games = more revenue for Sony, busting the original point of the purchase.

4. EMail Sony on this address [{some address}@eu.sony.com] and express your discontentment

Not a bad idea on the face of it - but far better when targetted to a mainstream public email address (such as sales@ or customer_service@ or whatever) as private mail addresses can be replaced easily. I'm loosely in favour of this, but again are they likely to care? So what if you're not going to buy their next console? Many others will! All this will effectively serve is to be a minor nuisance to Sony and nothing more.

Just my 2 cents.
Tony

 

[PoisonedV]

I definately agree with you Tony, and some other gaming forums I'm on topic are comin up like that, with the same answers./But alsp. the people who go "lol psp 4 lyfe!11!`1"

 

[piemaster]

Allot of those downgraders were recent. Before all those downgraders Lik-Sang had adverts on their site PSP 1.5 NEW! Thats not done discreetly, its done stupid. Any company would put a stop to that when its in your face, but the biggest thing though. They didn't get, or even ask permission from SCEE to import their products. Which is a no no, and big mistake. When you're running a global corporation you want to know where everything is being sold, and what its going to be used for.

Don't get mad at Sony. Get mad at Lik-Sang's ignorance. Sony is just following perfectly normal intelligent business protocol.

Yes the downgraders did come later but Sony knew from the start where the stuff was being sold they did order from Lik-Sang themselves. I know they did try back in 2005 but failed they knew the only way to get rid of Lik-Sang was to file multipul lawsuits and make them go bankrupt with the costs.

I will get mad at Sony because they are trying to reduce the choice of games i'm allowed to play

 

[PSyMastR]

There is one point kotaku makes on this entire thing...

Furthermore, Sony have failed to disclose to the London High Court that not only the world wide gaming community in more than 100 countries relied on Lik-Sang for their gaming needs, but also Sony Europe's very own top directors repeatedly got their Sony PSP hard or software imports in nicely packed Lik-Sang parcels with free Lik-Sang Mugs or Lik-Sang Badge Holders, starting just two days after Japan's official release, as early as 14th of December 2004 (more than nine months earlier than the legal action). The list of PSP related Sony Europe orders reads like the who's who of the videogames industry, and includes Ray Maguire (Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Alan Duncan (UK Marketing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Chris Sorrell (Creative Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Rob Parkin (Development Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited), just to name a few.

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/top/sony-blee...eath-209729.php

Think of all those countries that relied on lik-sang as the only way to get videogames, such as many countries that had no official retailer for videogames. Places like play-asia dont sell to every country in the world.

 

[Shikaku]

It just means less money for them...