Game over for cross-border PSP retailer

A Hong Kong-based online gaming retailer has closed up shop, saying continued lawsuits from Sony have forced it out of business.

Lik-Sang sold Japanese PlayStation Portable consoles to European customers--sales that Sony claimed infringed on its trademarks, copyrights and registered design rights. Sony has said it intends to continue trying to stop similar "gray market" imports, saying they do not meet European or British safety and regulatory standards.

But many bloggers think the issue has more to do with economics, saying Sony was afraid that shipping models across borders would hurt its pricing models.

Blog community response:

"Apparently, Sony only has the buyer's best interests at heart, saying that they're only 'trying to protect consumers from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards.' Not bad as an official justification, but the real issue probably has more to do protecting European retailers and maximizing limited launch quantities than actually protecting the odd importer."
--Joystiq

"If the customer is aware that these products are not under warranty, isn't that their decision to make? What this comes down to is the same problem that Sony has face over the past few years: it's unwillingness to bend on 'control.' It needs to control every aspect of its products, even long after they've been sold -- and that includes things like trying to price their devices much higher in Europe than elsewhere."
--TechDirt

"This is part of Sony's ongoing, suicidal war against its own customers -- from installing rootkits on CD-buyers' PCs to threatening hackers with lawsuits over teaching new dances to their Aibos to re-crippling the PSP to lock out homebrew software. Great companies like Lik-Sang that exist to serve an early-adopter, passionate user niche are collateral damage in the war."
--BoingBoing