Sony, a company not content with illegally putting root kits onto customers machines, pushing out proprietary formats as much as they can and making sure customers laptops explode has now gone one step further.
The much delayed and arguably overpriced PS3 is due to be released in Japan in less than a month and Sony is aggressively pursuing anyone attempting to import the PS3 into Europe before the consoles delayed release in March next year.
In a notice on Lik-Sang's website, the company apologises to customers and sheds some interesting light on what Sony's directors get up to with their bonuses:
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.
It's likely that a huge backlash will follow in light of Sony's recent threats, may this be a lesson to a company that never seems to learn.
Update: Sony has responded to Lik-sangs claims and admits successfully suing the company. Sony is owed a substantial amount of money which has not been paid so one can only assume that the company cannot afford to pay and must cease trading. Therefore, Sony has effectively put Lik-sang out of business even though Sony is denying this. Sony described the purchasing of PSP consoles by SCE employees for "investigatory purposes". Believe what you will but you can read their response here
Thanks to Matt Hill for the heads up.
View: Lik Sang Notice
The much delayed and arguably overpriced PS3 is due to be released in Japan in less than a month and Sony is aggressively pursuing anyone attempting to import the PS3 into Europe before the consoles delayed release in March next year.
In a notice on Lik-Sang's website, the company apologises to customers and sheds some interesting light on what Sony's directors get up to with their bonuses:
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.
It's likely that a huge backlash will follow in light of Sony's recent threats, may this be a lesson to a company that never seems to learn.
Update: Sony has responded to Lik-sangs claims and admits successfully suing the company. Sony is owed a substantial amount of money which has not been paid so one can only assume that the company cannot afford to pay and must cease trading. Therefore, Sony has effectively put Lik-sang out of business even though Sony is denying this. Sony described the purchasing of PSP consoles by SCE employees for "investigatory purposes". Believe what you will but you can read their response here
Thanks to Matt Hill for the heads up.
View: Lik Sang Notice
If you want play cute; show me where I posted the angle of their digging. You're assuming that Sony could do ANYTHING in a straight line these days.
Sony is just another in a long line of corporate scumbags out for the bottom line: profit. Screw Sony and screw the PS3. Bring on PC gaming
They teach you that in business school? Corporations are not people. They don't have feelings or act out of spite and arrogance. Did you think there might be actual reasons that Sony wanted to have a delayed release of their products?
First of all, different countries have different regulations with consumer products. Second, Sony may want to concentrate their marketing dollars on different markets at different times. Third, they may want to satisfy demand in certain markets (to create a concentrated foothold) before moving onto another market. There could be many other reasons on top of those obvious three.
Every company, be it Ben & Jerry's or Sony or McDonald's, is out to make money. If you think anything else, you just fell prey to their marketing.
No but they are run by people. Unless Sony is run by AIBOs now.
In the case of Sony I would have to strongly disagree.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
Sony is just another in a long line of corporate scumbags out for the bottom line: profit. Screw Sony and screw the PS3. Bring on PC gaming
Wrong Shawn.
Everyone keeps reading the Vista license wrong.
You are allowed to transfer the license to other machines, but it can only be on one machine at a time.
Here's how it works.
Let's say you have Vista on a machine and that machine fails, you can then transfer it to a new machine as long as you remove it from the previous machine.
At that point in time the new machine is now the licensed machine. If it fails you can then transfer Vista to the new machine as long as you remove it from the previous machine.
In other words you only have the license to transfer it once per machine. That license extends each time you need to do it, but at no point in time are you allowed to have it on more than one machine at a time.
I had to check this out when I was up on campus and had it verified.
True... but looking at Sony's behaviour in the last year or so - rootkits, "astroturf" graffiti campaigns, closed hardware architecture etc. - "arrogance" is as good a term as any other to describe their behavior.
- I did..
Lik-Sang buy there products!!!!
Stupid sony its asking for trouble!
I do hate some of the things that they do... but the market will sort them out.
Shame really... Sony, like HP, used to be a company that put out quality, well-engineered products. How the might have fallen.
I pity them
I already own a PS2 but from here on in, i'm never buying another Sony product or game, ever. Screw you Sony.
Talk about biting the hand that feeds them. Surely sales are sales, regardless of where they come from.
Last edited by Chicane-UK on 24 Oct 2006 - 15:50
i make sure to get back at them as best i can coughdownloadscough
EDIT: from what I've read on their forums, they're closing shop because they can't afford to run it anymore. Sony's lawsuits have squeezed them dry. They're refunding all unshipped purchases, and will be working with banks to refund store credits.
http://forum.lik-sang.com/showthread.php?t=16513
I was always more of a Play-asia guy, but every once in awhile, Lik-sang would have a pretty good deal. Too bad they had to go.
Last edited by NeoTrunks on 24 Oct 2006 - 15:51
All of this so they can 'protect the consumer', protect their bottom line more like. I think the consumer needs to be protected from Sony, they seem to think that treating all of their stakeholder groups like dirt will have no effect on them because the Playstation brand is so strong.
Nintendo all the way for me.
If you want play cute; show me where I posted the angle of their digging. You're assuming that Sony could do ANYTHING in a straight line these days.
DRM, Proprietary BS, exploding laptops, and this crap. They are worse then MS. At least MS dosn't stop ppl from importing software etc.
As of this moment, 12:10:35pm Eastern Time, in the province of Ontario, in the country of Canada, I do hereby swear, I shall never buy another Sony product. Be it headphones, cellphone, game or console. They have lost all business of mine. tosses the $120 sony cdplayer I got onto Ebay immediatly for $1
- previous VAIO computer from 2003
- an old 1980s stereo that still works
- plus a 21st century stereo that matches the quality of just about anything coming out of China these days
- the free Walkman CD player I got
- and a Walkman tape player
- and those numerous CD-R(W)s lying around that contains my personal stuff
just because of the recent arrogance arising from their games/record label departments. They've got others that sell decent stuff.
To anyone stating they're tossing out their Sony accessories right away, bull ****ing s***.
Go ahead and toss it away if you must, but I feel most of you are just letting your anger force words out of your asses.
So I guess you got p0wn3d yourself garçon
what does P0wned mean anyways. good god you 12 year olds....
If true then the managers of Sony Europe who bought products from this company should be fired immediately for breaking company rules and EU / UK Health and Safety Laws.
Hopefully they will get the idiots who sanctioned the Root Kit fiasco in the process.
I doubt they will though and the usual double-standards and hypocrisy will no doubt apply to Sony's own employees.
I for one won't be buying any Sony products in the near future, nor will I supply any to my customers. I would urge you all to do the same.
Perhaps if Sony earns a few less $ £ or € in the next few months they might take notice as stop being so crass and idiotic to their customers and business partners.
Kind Regards
Simon
Its sad to see how far they have fallen, the Walkman and PS1 seem like distant memories now.
Last edited by TRC on 25 Oct 2006 - 01:30
Basically, if this logic is OK, it could be illegal for Europeans to import anything, such as a legal DVD or CD, personally from another area. So it's not just about a specific website. It may have a general impact.
Last edited by src19 on 25 Oct 2006 - 10:12
I'm sure Sang also got a good state of doing business with Sony. So is not that Sang is feeding Sony but more the otherway around.
It's such a shame that something like this couldn't be settled outside courts.
As for the price of PS3 being high, what a joke. It's not high at all.
Trance
PS: Keep on Sony, seams that since M$ started being interested in the console market a lot of people started being angry with you. But notice that not all of us are angry for precisely the same reasons. The image of unfairness that you now have, only you have created it. Start trating your customers better.
You are based on another wrong assumption: Hong Kong is not Japan, like Cantonese is not Japanese. Lik-Sang is not a Japanese exporter. If it was, Sony would have sued it in Japan, not in Hong Kong.
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