RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RAAAAAAAAAACERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Oh wait.

Sad to see that Lik-Sang is gone. I imported a couple of things from them before and everything went well. I wouldn't hestiate from ordering from them again.

I also like to order from Yesasia. I've made over 10 orders from them in the past and never had a problem. But just make sure the item you are ordering takes only 24 hour or 1-2 day to dispatch otherwise you'll need to wait for weeks even if it says it takes 7 days. Their free shipping is also very slow. It usually takes 2 weeks to get my items from them.

Playasia is good too. Though at one time I tried to order Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 from them and the dispatch time was stated to be 5 days. I waited a week and the order status was still pending so I emailed them and they said they ran out of stock. Otherwise they were all good. Shipping is quite fast too. A $3.10 airmail only takes 1 week to reach here in New Zealand as opposed to 2 weeks from Yesasia.

Another shop for importing games I have tried was Himeya Shop. Their shipping fee is high since they only use EMS. But they're very fast. I ordered a game on Monday afternoon and the game arrived to my door on Thursday morning from Japan in the same week. I have never seen shipping as fast as this out of the 150 purchases I have made online from oversea companies and ebay.

Ok, I checked out the link and I have a better concept of this whole mess. Even though what Sony did is technically, and legally, right, I still feel like it was a shitty thing to do. They fucked over a market with a good chunk of demand for what seems like no particular reason. Lik-sang saw the opportunity and took advantage of it. (even though it came at a price). Like Acer mentioned, if lik-sang had no trouble providing PSPs to Europe then there was obviously enough of them to go around so what the hell Sony? What could have caused this delay then? I doubt marketing campaigns take 12 months to create. It seems like they just preformed in clumsy manner when it came to Europe and that's a pretty shitty reason to have to go through a delay.

Cetra--thanks for that link, because it clearly states that there's a lot of ambiguity regarding parallel importing, and it's not a clear-cut thing at all.

The weirdest part about this whole debacle to me is the fact that all those Sony Europe bigwigs imported PSPs from Lik-Sang. I mean, what kind of signal are you sending? "Don't sell these things anymore, okay? In the meantime, I'll have one." I'm guessing that Lik-Sang saw this as a sign that they wouldn't go so far as to sue to the point where they had to shut down.

On the other hand, perhaps Sony thought that they would just comply with the C&D, and when they didn't, they felt like they had to sue in order for their integrity to remain intact.

Regardless of their intentions, the result of their actions has further amplified the already hostile atmosphere among all but the most hardened of Sony fans. It just doesn't seem like good business, and I really don't see Sony doing all that well this upcoming generation. The writings were already on the wall (supposed "exclusive PS3" titles are suddenly appearing for 360 also, delays in Europe, lack of buzz in Japan), and I know several people are not getting a PS3 because of this, as unreasonable as that is.

I wasn't going to get a PS3 or a PSP anyway, but then again, I hate Sony.

I'm going to need a clarification on this, as the wiki link doesn't explain it.

Legally, what's the difference between hardware and software export? Why are games ok and untouchable, but the hardware itself is not?

I fail at legal stuff

Parallel Importing shouldn't be illegal...believe it or not that's what a lot of big businesses do in the USA...but I guess that's the key word here...."big" businesses. Oh well.... :(

If the PSP is region free Sony cocked up originally by not planning to release the PSP worldwide all at the same time. It's so easy these days to buy internationally they should have realized exactly what would happen! Why would anybody who has the money and wants one wait for it to be released in their country?

I was in the UK last month and checked the prices of the PSP as I was thinking of buying one. For just the basic PSP, no extras - GBP180, HK$1100 or NZ$350. I can only convert them into NZ$ but the approx values are $540, $220 & $350 - that's a huge price difference in anybody's language! Why on earth would I buy one in the UK when I can get it for less than half the cost in Hong Kong? If prices were standardised world-wide there would be no need for illegal importing. And you can't blame local production costs as I would think they're all made at the same place.

The same thing applies to games - I buy most of my games from the US as they are never released in NZ, even if they are released on PAL in Europe only the most popular reach us (same for Australia I would imagine). I was given figures once - for every 30 rpg games released in Japan (all consoles) only 10 make it to the US, and of those an average of 4 make it to PAL. I don't know if this is true or not but it would explain why most of my games are NTSC US! I also had to void my warranty by getting a modchip so I could play these games which I wasn't very happy about.

I'm definitely not a huge fan of Sony anymore!

Ever so slightly off topic, but I was just thinking: one year ago today, I really, REALLY wanted a PS3. I was craving it, needing it, like some kind of junkie.

Sony have all but completely KILLED any desire I ever had to own their console after XCP, their price announcements, Lik-Sang, and otherwise generally acting like dicks to their customers.

Even SMT4 and Silent Hill 5 are seeming less and less able to sell me on a (even used) console.

Thanks for the info Cetra. You seem to be the only one here with an opinion AS WELL AS KNOWING WHAT THE FUCK IS REALLY GOING ON. Jesus it annoys me when people generalize shit into "OMG <3 lik-sang I HATE SONY"

Proof please?

Different release dates?

Anyway, as for my own opinion I could care less about lik-sang. Never ordered from them, I'm not much into imports (read: I've never imported). It's clear Sony won the case, so I don't see this as bad mark for them. However, cheaply ripping off the concept of the Wii controller is a different story.

So basically you're admitting that you're willing to defend Sony even though you don't use and don't care for the counterparty.

Wow that's not biased at all.

All I am wondering about now is what will happen to their SmartJoy USB hookups for controllers. That was pretty much the only products I ordered from them.

Anyway, Sony had a legal right to sue Lik-sang. However, they are ripping off buyers with their prices in some countries. Pretty stupid how much their products cost in some places cpmpared to others.

Some other site will probably pop up eventually. It's pretty obvious that if someone sees an opportunity to get a product in perfect condition for less, they will.

So you're saying I need to personally use and care for the counterparty in order to be unbaised? MMMMKAY. I'm glad you're not involved with the justice system.

Judge: Hmmm..... raise your hand if you've used Lik-Sang and enjoy the company and it's service. OK, you're all on the jury!

I defend Sony because the court defends Sony.

FailDragon, you realize that half of the time (if not all, I can't recall) lik-sang didn't show up?

From my understanding there was very little communication between lik-sang and Sony, and basically Sony were jealous of lik-sang's profit making from their products. It's stupid to think lik-sang were at fault when you have a region free handheld released everywhere but europe, and then Sony cries crocodile tears.

If you lived in a country where you had the ability to import a device, which would be able to play your own countries format, yet you wouldn't be getting it through a retailer, would you do it? I know I would, simply for the fact that there's no other alternative available. And that's what happened.

People are forgetting that this isn't about selling PSPs, but Sony complaining about AC adaptors. It's funny how Sony have managed to bring down lik-sang due to AC adaptors, when it's pretty clear that they've wanted to do that right from 2004.

Sorry for such the late reply. I hate to bring this topic up again, but I don't want to leave this question unanswered.

It's not that games are untouchable, its just that with games we are dealing with a lot of different parties. The publisher of each game are the ones who hold distribution rights. That means it is up to them to claim distribution rights in each region. A lot of these publishers simple don't care or feel the market is being effected by their games being imported or the amount of work/money required to enforce their distribution rights isn't worth the gain of exclusive distribution. A second reason is the game actually has to be available in a region for a company to claim exclusive rights. I'm not sure about 100% European law, but there is also a stature of limitations on this claim which I believe is six months.

Just for example, say Square releases Final Fantasy XII to the US. Square can make an announcement they are planning on releasing Final Fantasy XII to the European market and claim distribution rights on it. At this point the importation of Final Fantasy XII is in fact illegal. However, there is also a six month stature of limitation, meaning if Square fails to make the product available within six months of the claim, they lose their distribution claims and importing of the product from other regions is allowed. I also think Square would have to wait another 3 months before they can reclaim distribution rights in Europe if such a situation happened.

So the same rules apply to games, but the game market is just a lot more complex than the video game hardware market. Distribution of software in Europe is also a bit more lax compared to the distribution of hardware since the language barrier tends to create a natural boundary in the software market.