the game rag

Hong Kong based importer Lik-Sang recently announced that they will be closing their doors and going out of business. In an increasingly wordy hissy fit, Lik-Sang threw around allegations that Sony "marched all over" them. They went on to say, "Fighting multiple lawsuits in different countries at the same time and paying high premiums to expensive lawyers is an overwhelming situation for a small company like Lik Sang." They also said, "Launching separate court actions with separate claims and different judges is completely unnecessary, except for the fact that it helps reaching one single target: outspend Lik-Sang to death." Ok, this is getting a tad wordy: "Blame it on Sony. That's the latest dark spot in their shameful track record as gaming industry leader. The Empire finally 'won', few dominating retailers from the UK probably will rejoice the news, but everybody else in the gaming world lost something today."

Dear God there's more: "Today is Sony Europe victory about PSP, tomorrow is Sony Europe's ongoing pressure about PlayStation 3. With this precedent set, next week could already be the stage for complaints from Sony America about the same thing, or from other console manufacturers about other consoles to other regions, or even from any publisher about any specific software title to any country they don't see fit. It's the beginning of the end... of the World as we know it"

OK! Now that the drama queens over at Lik-Sang are done with their bitching, let's just be clear that High Court Judge Michael Fysh found that Lik-Sang was infringing Sony trademarks, copyrights, and registered design rights by selling Japanese PSP's to a European market. Sony won. Fair and square. The judge was so sure of who was just that he didn't even bother to extend the hearing to allow Lik-Sang to defend themselves. That's called intuition. And in light of this, Lik-Sang has the nerve to throw all the blame on Sony. Let me be clear, Sony was in no way associated with the aforementioned closure of Lik-Sang. Sony's actions only triggered the inevitable, much like the volcano Vesuvius above Pompeii, or Janet Jackson's *ahem* slip at the Superbowl.

Lik-Sang also claimed, "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 the 14th of December in 2004 (more than nine months earlier than the legal action)." Now this is true, and speaking on behalf of Ray Maguire, Managing Director of SCEE, Lik Sang's business practices are (were) very perplexing.

Not only did Ray receive a complimentary coffee mug bearing the Lik-Sang logo, but the product was delivered in a timely fashion, and when Ray called to inquire about certain functions of the product, the damnedest of things happened. Not only did the Customer Service reps actively listen to what he said, they actually fixed the problem! Is this how they do things in Hong Kong? Madness!

Seriously, are they mad? If company's keep acting like that, customers might actually get what they want.