It's possible you've heard of Lik-Sang; apparently they made it possible for people all over the world to import video games and toys out of the land of electronics and honey (commonly known as Japan). I say made in the past tense because Lik-Sang announced today that they're closing their doors because of "multiple legal actions brought against it by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc." The lawsuits in question were brought by Sony against Lik-Sang in the UK and countries across the EU, after Sony banned the importation of devices from Japan to Europe, ostensibly to protect against the release of the PS3 until next Spring.

Here's where it gets interesting, though: in the press release announcing the closing, Lik-Sang accused Sony of winning by bleeding them to death, being an evil empire, etc. and then revealed that many of Sony's top personnel in Europe were Lik-Sang customers. Sony shot back with a press release of their own (discussed in this gamesindustry.biz article) denying that the lawsuits were draining Lik-Sang, saying that Sony is still owed a large sum of money for the copyright violations and calling Lik-Sang sour grapes (yes, they used the term sour grapes - it's wonderfully British) for a.) blaming the whole situation on Sony and b.) outting customers.

It's very likely we'll never know who's telling the truth in all of this mess, but what we do know is that first, Lik-Sang scored a major public relations victory by being the first to cast blame and second, Sony's reputation in Europe among the gaming community is probably toast for the next year at least, as they struggle through the fallout of this debacle. I'll be interested to see how the PS3 launch goes in Europe as a result.

Via Kotaku