Lik-Sang shuttered

Lik-Sang, an online import gaming retailer headquartered in Hong Kong, has gone out of business.

The announcement of closure follows a Sony win (the second legal case against Lik-Sang) against "grey importing". Lik-Sang is shutting down because the Sony win ostensibly opens the door for future lawsuits (and wins).

Pascal Clarysse (who was the marketing manager for Lik-Sang), said:

"Today is Sony Europe's victory about the 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."

I can't speak to the grey importing issue, but I got some good (legitimate) stuff from them I couldn't get anywhere else, so I'm bummed they're gone.

I hope there's more to the story, because it seems pretty off if Sony killed a smaller company for the import issue.

Clarysse had stronger words for Sony, too:

"Sony Europe's very own top directors [Clarysse named names; and Sony retorted puchases were for "investigatory purposes"] repeatedly got their Sony PSP hard or software imports in nicely packaged 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 December 14, 2004 (more than nine months earlier than the legal action).

"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 [in] the news, but everybody else in the gaming world lost something today."

Sony, on the other hand, issued an uncharacteristically aggressive response by way of game mag MCV:

"Lik Sang did not contest this case (ie. they did not turn up and therefore incurred no legal costs). We have been awarded substantial costs against Lik Sang which have not been paid. We would therefore strongly deny that our actions have had anything to do with this website closing (we assume the legal entity is still trading) and would suggest that this release is sour grapes on behalf of Lik Sang which is aimed to belittle Sony Computer Entertainment and the British judicial system that ruled against them."

Bummer ...