Sony Demands $188,000 from Lik-Sang by Nov. 1

[PSPCulture]

yeah me too, those dudes arent dudes no more, i can believe they would do that!! oh well, unless we start a revolution then Sony will continue to do this

I wasn't aware that the Sony were ever 'Dudes' - I aways assumed they were a big assed company looking to maximise its profits whilst minimising its costs.

Lik-Sang found a way to make money off the back of Sony's products, they exploited this for a while, and have now had to cease their activities.

Imagine, if you will, that you are a company making an electronic product. It costs you $10million to develop. You figure out the volume you need to sell, and at what price in each global market to cover that and the prodcutions costs and make some profit for your shareholders.

You then find that company B does nothing other than buy your product in bulk in one market, and sells it in another, undercutting your price sufficiently to affect your sales to that market.

How can company B undercut your prices? It simply doesn't have to cover both the development and production costs of the unit, so its margins on each unit sold can be incredibly small, its still a profit to them.

Why do different markets have different prices - because at the end of the day, you charge the amount the consumer is willing to pay. Same reason why a cars in the UK are more expensive than the USA / Europe, if people go out and buy them, incentive to reduce the price isn't there.

If Sony cannot cover its development and production costs sufficiently to make a reasonable profit, it cannot invest in new development work. Therefore you get no PS3, PSP2 etc etc.

I wish this issue was a clear cut as everyone seems to think, and that Sony is the big bad wolf chasing down the little lambs because it can, but in reality its a damn sight more complex than that.

From the man on the streets point of view, losing a place to get products cheaply is bad, and I can understand that, but demonising a company for wishing to protect its bottom line makes no sense.

[Darksaviour69]

the usally reason companies give for higher prices in the uk is "transport costs are higher" which is true to a point, but its really over used, international companies allway mark up for the uk because they know it will sell, (i remember songs were dearer for the uk site of itunes, but they got in deep $#@! for that)

over all the uk government and more so the eu parliament are trying to stop these unnecessary price hikes. I would guess if this case had a high enough profile, something would be done to stop sony making a monopoly in Europe (ps3 wise)

[mr_nick666]

I am almost embarassed that I own $ony stuff!

A sad truth Ive said it before and I'll say it again - I feel the PSP may be my last $ony purchase... Damn them and their evil corporate ways

[Gray Fox]

Wots with all this fuz bout lik-sang?`If they as I understood it, sold japanese psps illegally to european people then they broke the law, that means the right things was to shut down lik-sang. Allthough I cant really c whats wrong with selling japanese psps to europe? Ive newer heard bout lik-sang be4 but it sounds as they sell things....

[irongiant]

PSPCulture is spot on with his post. Lik Sang took advantage of the cheaper prices abroad and made profit by piggy backing on Sony products. Yes it's frustrating for importers but Sony have the right to protect their investments just like any other company has, Nintendo don't have a good track record with importers either but people quickly forget that and try to paint Sony as an evil empire.

They've only got a small number of units to release in their home territory so why shouldn't they protect that? Those 80,000 or 100,000 are meant for Japanese gamers and not to be shipped all over the world, they have every right to stop importers.

The 15 year old posters here seem to like throwing their toys out of the pram at every opportunity, comments like 'Im hurt by Sony' are just pathetic.

[quzar]

odds are sony will simply never see the money. if lik-sang is well set up at all, they will be able to dissolvewith the owners pulling whatever money existed out for themselves.

[F9zDark]

I wasn't aware that the Sony were ever 'Dudes' - I aways assumed they were a big assed company looking to maximise its profits whilst minimising its costs.

Lik-Sang found a way to make money off the back of Sony's products, they exploited this for a while, and have now had to cease their activities.

Imagine, if you will, that you are a company making an electronic product. It costs you $10million to develop. You figure out the volume you need to sell, and at what price in each global market to cover that and the prodcutions costs and make some profit for your shareholders.

You then find that company B does nothing other than buy your product in bulk in one market, and sells it in another, undercutting your price sufficiently to affect your sales to that market.

How can company B undercut your prices? It simply doesn't have to cover both the development and production costs of the unit, so its margins on each unit sold can be incredibly small, its still a profit to them.

Why do different markets have different prices - because at the end of the day, you charge the amount the consumer is willing to pay. Same reason why a cars in the UK are more expensive than the USA / Europe, if people go out and buy them, incentive to reduce the price isn't there.

If Sony cannot cover its development and production costs sufficiently to make a reasonable profit, it cannot invest in new development work. Therefore you get no PS3, PSP2 etc etc.

I wish this issue was a clear cut as everyone seems to think, and that Sony is the big bad wolf chasing down the little lambs because it can, but in reality its a damn sight more complex than that.

From the man on the streets point of view, losing a place to get products cheaply is bad, and I can understand that, but demonising a company for wishing to protect its bottom line makes no sense.

Sony loses money on Consoles no matter what company sells them for them. Also, the standard retail model dictates that Sony already 'got paid' for the PSPs that Lik-Sang sold (Lik-Sang orders PSPs from Sony to meet the demand on the users who shop at Lik-Sang; Sony gets money, Lik-Sang gets PSPs).

Not to mention, the more people who have PSPs, the more people buying games. The more people buying games, the more money Sony makes.

Sony was just trying to protect its investment in PS3s. In the UK PS3s are said to be selling for 2-3 HUNDRED MORE USD than they are anywhere else...

[Baboon]

A sad truth Ive said it before and I'll say it again - I feel the PSP may be my last $ony purchase... Damn them and their evil corporate ways

I'm afraid I'm with you there.

$ony has turned into Microsoft! ...the law is an ass ...and just for the privilege of living in the UK you have to pay extortionate tax on everything. ...bah humbug.

[quzar]

Sony loses money on Consoles no matter what company sells them for them. Also, the standard retail model dictates that Sony already 'got paid' for the PSPs that Lik-Sang sold (Lik-Sang orders PSPs from Sony to meet the demand on the users who shop at Lik-Sang; Sony gets money, Lik-Sang gets PSPs).

Not to mention, the more people who have PSPs, the more people buying games. The more people buying games, the more money Sony makes.

Sony was just trying to protect its investment in PS3s. In the UK PS3s are said to be selling for 2-3 HUNDRED MORE USD than they are anywhere else...

I think the problem comes in when sony is charging their retaillers a significant amount more for pal (or european, however their naming scheme works) PSPs than for ntsc-j (japanese, or maybe general asian) PSPs. Then a company like lik-sang really stands to impact their profit margin in europe.

I'm not srue how they are set up, but that could end up reflecting extremely poorly on european sales of the system, even though their marketing and whatnot is doing it's job (getting people to buy the system).

[Gray Fox]

Um why would people buy a japanase psp anyways? A european would b better? I remember a store here in norway a game shop sold japanese psps be4 the release date of the psp, is that illegal as well? That is selling japanese psps to europeans sounds pretty much like what lik-sang did.