Upon Lik-Sang and Sony - Editorials

Kurt takes a look at the recent closing of Lik-Sang after Sony filed suits against the game (and related paraphernalia) exporter.

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On Lik-Sang and Sony

by Kurt Kalata

Sony is the veritable control freak of the video gaming world. They’ve cornered themselves with proprietary products like Betamax, the Minidisc, the UMD, and now Blu-Ray, all in an attempt to create a standard, but most importantly, to gain control. This is the same reason why Sony caused the closure of internet video game importer Lik Sang.

Now, Lik Sang hasn’t always been the saintliest of retail outlets. They’ve dealt in the shady areas of mod chipping in the past, which isn’t expressly illegal, but crosses too many dangerous lines, to the point where other publishers such as Nintendo have come after them. Admittedly, I preferred to shop at other retailers like Play Asia and National Console Support, although for a long time, Lik Sang was the only place to get component cables for the Nintendo Gamecube. But they’ve built a solid reputation as a trustworthy importer, and it’s sad to see them bulled into submission.

This is because Lik Sang hasn’t done anything expressly wrong. According to the court report, Sony filed suit to protect its trademark because Lik Sang was selling Japanese PSPs to gamers in the United Kingdom . This in itself isn’t a crime, but there’s a nice label on the PSP box that says FOR SALE AND USE IN JAPAN ONLY.

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We’ve seen these stickers on games for decades, but no one really cared if anyone honored this order, so people around the world could easily get their hands on Japanese-only goods. Except for, of course, Sony. The PSP was released in Europe months after America , and many impatient gamers sought to get their fix elsewhere, since apparently Sony was too incompetent to release their hardware

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on time. And now, since the same thing is happening with the Playstation 3, once again Sony is probably fearing that the neglected European gamers will just go straight for an imported console, theoretically causing a sales loss for their European division. Even though the money is going to the same parent company, maintaining this control is apparently very important for Sony.

From a business standpoint, it’s easy to see why. Games are usually priced differently between territories, with American games usually being the cheapest, while European and Japanese games are typically more expensive. If it’s cheaper to import an American copy, then why bother getting the European release, which will probably come months later anyway? Regional lockouts and TV signal differences have kept this from becoming an issue, but with an all region system like the PSP, this can cause some problems for Sony’s European division, which is now essentially competing with other sections within the company. This poses another question, why isn’t Nintendo doing the same thing? They’re in the same situation with the DS, but haven’t taken any action against imported systems. While this might result in reduced revenue in Europe , they seem to foster a sense of customer appreciation that has gone completely over Sony’s head.

The implications of this whole ordeal goes far beyond annoying European gamers. The big question is, what if this starts a slippery slope where Sony attempts to sue importers in America ? What happens if they try to close down more stores, or even try to ban imports all together? Although that doesn’t sound particularly legal, technically they’re the ones that control their properties, as a precedent set down in the British court system has decreed. While not exactly likely, it could cause havoc for avid gamers, who are willing to wade through mountains of Japanese text to get the latest RPG a few months early. And as much as the video game market has become more globalized than it used to be, there are still tons of games that only come out in Japan due to the perceived lack of a marketplace elsewhere in the world. Fans of 2D fighting games and shooters already have to jump through hoops to play games, and Sony just wants to make it even more difficult? At a certain point, tenacious gamers are just going to give up and go the piracy route.

Sony’s being doing a lot to tarnish their image for this upcoming generation, and it seems like they just don’t care. The average joe isn’t going to care about their attitudes to their customers, but they’ve been making plenty of enemies of avid gamers who follow the news, and have essentially offended an entire territory. All of these gamers will be voting with their dollars, and they may not necessarily be voting for Playstation 3.

(October 25, 2006)