Since I’m still so annoyed by the whole Sony causing the death of Lik-Sang, here’s what Mike (O’ Connor) had to say about it over at the Gamer’s Quarter forums, who also did a great job of sheding light on Sony’s decision to go after the retail outfit legally via the United Kingdon’s legal system:
“sony really is one of the most blundertastic game companies on earth… not that this will deter piracy, of course, but sony is notorious for never, ever ever learning from its mistakes. (betamax –> umd, etc etc)….
… it’s just that the uk has what one might consider, from an american perspective, a uniquely proportioned sense of liability in certain contexts – which is why if you’re going to sue a tabloid for saying you’re awesome, you sue them in the uk.
couched in terms of “safety issues” (which again, from even our debased american perspective in the age of the safety kid, the uk and eu are absurdly obsessed with, especially with things like these where the safety issue is negligible – but the ability to section off and control trade isn’t) sony can say “lik sang was putting people in danger AND violating our right to control our physical IP AND enabling counterfeiting AND are not very nice people at all.” this is the same company, of course, which thinks that users hacking the OS on the psp apart to install linux on it and run homebrew software is a bad thing. they do not understand how audience participation will create sales no matter what kind of roadblocks you put up, which is why people bother spending lots of time and money importing consoles in the first place to play games in a language they can’t actually understand.
if sony were a more intelligent company – that is to say, more interested in long term health rather than trying to save their asses from what may very well be their last tap dance on this stage as a market leader – they would realize that people spend millions trying to create these kind of “user communities” and for every act of piracy – unpreventable piracy, mind you – there lies a possible entrance for a new customer. who cares if a uk user wants to import an american game and play it on a japanese console? outside of power restrictions may cause damage? motherfuckers buy the shit; if they can’t be bothered to figure out how to make it work, too fucking bad. refuse to repair out of region consoles even, or more intelligently, charge a small fee for warranty replacement on out of warranty transactions (like import consoles, modding, etc). the piracy will not be stopped through physical preventive measures; the utter lack of respect for the concept of ownership when it comes to digital media is mitigated, however, by the aging of your audience, the perks of packaging and a hack-free gaming experience.”
The thing is, I thought the whole point behind the PSP in the first place was for it to be the ultimate “do anything” device. And if Sony had indeed allowed people to do precisely “whatever” from the very beginning, instead of using firmware to string people along (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say that they refuse to buy a new game because they would be forced to upgrade and therefore loose all the cool shit they can currently do), Sony would have indeed had the “iPod killer” they have so desperately longed for. But again, they fucked it up.
In the realm of video games, one will be hard pressed to find a better example of a company that continually spits in the faces of its supporters. And again, there’s just no plausible reason for Sony to go after Lik-Sang. Previously they were shut down by Nintendo for selling flash carts for the GBA, and a valid argument could be made on the behalf of Nintendo. But considering that there’s no plausible means to pirate PSP games, then what was the point? Sony just hated someone selling games from one region to another? I’ve always been curious at people who defend such thinking since, in the end, Sony or whomever got their money somewhere to procure the game in the first place to sell via whatever means.
Maybe they just realized this simple face this morning, hence the statement from them earlier this morning in which they re-iterated that PS3 games will be region free. Either that or they’re just trying to save a little bit of face from this latest bit of embarrassment (which they are also claiming they are not a part of).
Though regarding the region-free thing, they also reiterated that its ultimately up to the game companies to make the final call, which is the same exact position that Microsoft has with their Xbox 360. Hence why the system, which is supposed to open a whole world of possibilities for you is not able to play Senko No Ronde X.
Anyway, I guess I have yet another reason not to support Sony any further. I know I’ve long said that I really don’t want to pay $600 for a video game system, but call me again when I see the latest game from the folks behind Ico and Shadow of the Colossus has a game up and running for it and see if I’ve changed my tune. But seriously, as I type this, if I look immediately to my left and behind me, there’s at least thirty PS2, Xbox, DS, even a few GBA and GameCube games that I have barely touched, so I have really have no reason to bother.
And with that, I think I may have totally ruined my chances of getting a PS3 from Sony. Oh well.
In other news, again, its been another busy day, so I haven’t had any real chance to look around, but I do know that someone over at the Gaming Age Forums has compiled all the music from all the bitGeneration games, and that 4 Color Rebellion is hosing the tunes
Oh, and I know that this is SUPER old, but since I don’t think I recall anyone talking about this since coming across the blurb via Cinescape (yes, they do report on games as well) that Sega will be doing the video game adaptation of the His Dark Materials trilogy. One has to wonder if it’ll be based more so on the books or the upcoming movies. Unfortunately, it will more than likely be the latter, which will be severely castrated iterations of the source material. Which is a shame since the original books embody so much of what jRPG folks have grown to love. You know, the whole “I hate you dad, let’s kill God!” thing. It would be nice for Final Fantasy freaks to get an American treatment.
Plus, according to MK, the video game version of Reservoir Dogs, which she’s been watching her brother play since getting it yesterday, is apparently not that bad (looking). This actually corroborates with earlier reports from folks at either the GAF or IC, I forget which, that it actually has some interesting elements. I’ll have to check it out myself. I also forgot to mention that I played the Urbz this past weekend while looking after MK; she got it at a Toys R Us for just $6. She’s been really interested in the game since forever, hence why I didn’t have the heart to tell her that everyone I’ve talked to has said it sucked. Plus it was only $6. Though I will say that I do like hearing Black Eye Peas in Simlish.
Finally, and also from the Gaming Age Forums, though not video game related, this is simply hilarious (thanks to cvxfreak for the head’s up)…
