Although it is always hard to read between the lines, it seems that Sony has decided it is a priority to make sure that the world remains divided into marketting regions and has managed to sue importer Lik Sang into oblivion. I know the Lik Sang guys and they are nice, hard working people who recognize the fact that we are in a global economy and that the internet has pretty much broken down traditional market barriers. What really frustrates me are the tactics used by Sony, and as a small business owner whose business purpose is sometimes at odds with large corporations, but importantly is no less legitimate, I feel a visceral pain for Lik Sang. I know first-hand how the wrong or right of such cutting-edge issues in traditional courts of law essentially boils down to who can outspend the other: I have some first-hand experience with the despicable tactics that people can use in the court room to mask the truth in a haze of lies, half-truths, motions, demands, flawed discovery, depositions, and biased evidence that can be very expensive to refute. From what I can gather, Lik Sang was essentially shot down on safety concerns due to the safety differences in power supplies between regions as well as trademark concerns. Note that Microsoft didn’t pay nearly a proportionally painful price for its overheating Xbox360 power supplies, and those supplies are even region-certified. Might makes right, I suppose, and that does keep me on my tippy-toes when it comes to hacking consoles these days. It’s also a pretty sobering thought for a small company like Chumby.
I think it’s time for me to boycott the PS3…I’ll save my money for the much cooler Nintendo Wii (although, wouldn’t it be more financially damaging to Sony to buy the PS3 and then buy no games? Presumably they are selling the PS3 at a big loss initially…huh). The Cell processor is being deployed in other pieces of equipment, so I can wait until those are out to get my chance to hack with one. This is perhaps melodramatic, but the situation does remind me of the “First they came…” poem. Even though I am not an exporter (yet!), we are all in the same small business boat, so my little boycott is a small sign of solidarity.
Alex and Pascal–I feel for you. Best of luck with everything. Let me know if I can help somehow, and thanks for showing me around Hong Kong.
You arn’t the only one boycotting the BS3. :)
I’ve never thought I would ever not buy a lightspeed, powerpc based console on the spot. My current plans were to spent a hell of money to import a PS3, then have some fun with it. Looks like sony saved me $600+. Thank you, Sony. I’ll rather focus on the Wii now.
Still, I miss the Cell chip. Is there available hardware? Maybe building one would be an alternative? I would LOVE hacking around the cell chip. (By the way, did anybody with affected recalled laptop batteries yet exchanged his? If not, do that now – for your own safety only, of course!)
I’m very happy I traded my PS2 for a DSLite. I won’t be getting a PS3. Have you read about the rumble debacle? (See engadget for details.) Now there’s a clear example of Sony’s primary focus. So, as long as it is not on me, I’ll stick to tinkering with Chumby! Also, Sony never released the original Katamari for my region…yet another reason…
If you think about it, it’s more fiscally famaging to not buy the console, because they already put out ~$700 to build it, and then they’d not get your ~$500, making their loss complete, rather than partial.
Does anyone else have any experience with this?
Good information, I turned out to be very useful.
i need a good hacking frined