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Lik-sang responds: Sony "marched all over us"
On Tuesday, popular game importer Lik-sang announced that they were being forced to shut down due to expenses incurred fighting multiple lawsuits from Sony. Sony quickly went into damage control mode, telling GamesIndustry.biz that the legal battle had nothing to do with the site's closure and accusing the online retailer of "sour grapes." Today, Lik-Sang Marketing Manager Pascal Clarysse answered back, telling Joystiq that Sony has "marched all over us." Among the claims made in Clarysse's letter: Although Lik-sang did not end up contesting the London suit, the retailer spent significant time and money arguing over the London High Court's jurisdiction before the case came to court. Now that the London case has been decided, Lik-sang has been ordered to pay Sony's legal fees of 100,000 GBP ($187,140) by Nov. 1. The ongoing cost of the Hong Kong case is forcing Lik-Sang to pay for hundreds of hours of legal work at roughly 380 GBP ($711) per hour, not including clerks and assistants. Clarysse was also incredulous of court statements that Sony Europe 'became aware' of Lik-sang's importing business in March 2005, given that three of the firm's directors had ordered and received PSPs from the site more than six months beforehand.This may well be the last we hear from the company on the matter for a while, as Clarysse said his contract and those of his colleagues had been terminated. We can only hope that everyone who has been impacted by this state of affairs lands on their feet.
Retailers confirm high definition DVD player price cuts
HD DVD and Blu-ray players don't cost quite as much as they used to -- if you know where to look. Amazon and other retailers have recently slashed prices on Samsung's BD-P1000 Blu-ray player, as well as Toshiba's HD-A1 and HD-XA1 HD DVD players. VideoBusiness quotes a few smaller retailers as saying they're "just trying to stay competitive" with price adjustments, unexpected for technology that's only been out for a few months. They also mentioned that while HD DVD sales are as expected, Blu-ray sales have been less than expected. Whether it's the prospect of upcoming hardware revisions or reports of early glitches, some stores are bending over backwards to move first generation players off shelves while others (Crutchfield, Best Buy, Tweeter) see no need to. If you're confident enough to jump into the next generation of DVDs with one of the players already available, just be sure to price check first.[Thanks, Tyler]
Save $50 on a 360 at CompUSA
CompUSA is selling 360 Platinum Packages for $349.99 after $50 mail-in rebate, plus free shipping, until September 16. This offer is online only. They're also having a fire sale on the older games.Can anybody who know tell me the percentage of people who actually mail in the rebates from these big box stores because I don't think I've ever remembered to send one in?[Thanks Muppet]
Mock the "Pros" at Best Buy
Big box retailers have never been famous for the voluminous product expertise of their uniformed staff. But that won't stop them from communicating otherwise in the most politically correct way possible. CheapyD of CheapAssGamer.com was so insulted by the lameness of this Best Buy advertorial, he came up with an amusing, Hustler-style parody. Thankfully, our readers are way too cool to ask blue-shirted wage slaves stupid questions. That is, when they're not re-stocking the shelves themselves.[Thanks ElementsUnknown]
