(Mods - this seemed like it could go in a few different forums. I went with Cafe Society because it’s about (the) entertainment (industry), but I wouldn’t object to it being moved.)
It appears that the gaming import store, Lik-Sang, has just been killed off by lawsuits from Sony: Here’s a news article at joystiq on the topic.
I’m not sure what to make of this. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if, legally, Lik-Sang was pulling something dubious with the importing - I know Sony has asked them to stop in the past, with PSPs in Europe. Most of the opinions I’ve seen from the gaming world so far have been pretty negative against Sony, because a lot of core gamers rely on them for certain hardware and games that they can’t get locally. Personally I’ve never imported such things, but it was nice to know the option existed.
So, my question to the gamers and (particularly) the game industry people out there: What do you make of this? Legal? Ethical? Wise?
Legally, I don’t really have the knowledge to have an opinion. Ethically, I am bothered by the act of a large company killing a smaller one by suing them into the ground financially, if indeed that is what happened here. Some sources seem to be saying that it was the legal fees that forced Lik-Sang to close down - however, I’m not entirely convinced that this is all there is to it. In terms of widom: I would have thought that the proportion of gamers that import would be quite small, and wouldn’t have a huge impact on Sony’s bottom line, but would serve as free advertising pre-launch in the more screwed-by-the-industry regions like Europe and Australia. So on the face of things, this move looks to be at least strategically suspect.
Anyway, I call for the opinions of those more clueful than I. What say you, dopers?