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Filling the Lik-Sang Void
Written by Philip Jones on Wednesday, November 1, 2006
With Sony having squeezed Lik-Sang out of business, where should importers turn? We take an in-depth look at the pros and cons of the alternatives...
If you're a regular frequenter of the world's gaming blogs, its pretty safe to say you're going to have heard about the media frenzy surrounding the recent demise of the hardcore gamers friend Lik-Sang. As I write this, I'm unsure as to whether or not I believe its real. Is it a hoax? Some massive publicity stunt on the behalf of the people at Lik-Sang, blaming the evil empire of Sony for closing off a segment of their market share? Surely if the internet is to be believed, no one is buying PSP's, anyway so they should be making a roaring trade off the back of Nintendo sales?
Sony has gone after other importers for the same reasons. Play-Asia for instance has a no imports into Europe Agreement. No doubt after considerable legal threats from the overlords at Sony. Apparently the Euro hate stems from the country's decision to use 240v mains power instead of 100v and Sony not wanting to be blamed for any exploding product. Which is strange, as all PSPs ship with the same 100-240v mains adapter? It is more likely that it just boils down to Sony Europe doing its damnedest to protect itself from losing any sales figures to other Sony regions. America itself appears to remain free to import without any major legal hassles from any of the large game makers. Land of the free indeed!
Lik-Sang, you brought us so many memories...
The closure of Lik-Sang for many of is is the end of an era, having relied upon their services for many years. Getting lovely packages containing games either way earlier than their eventual western release, or games that will never ever make there way over here. It all makes Sony look very much like an evil destroyer of fun, with thunderous tones of "THOU SHALT NOT PLAY" echoing from the heavens above. Parting those clouds of discontent there are still some rays of import hope, even for those repeatedly punished European gamers.
The (now two) main Far East based export companies are Play-Asia and YesAsia. Both offering similar services (with the exception of Play-Asia's lack of European shipping for Sony products). So why would you prefer one over the other?
Play-Asia
Play-Asia is definitely set up more with gamers in mind. Its website is very user friendly and has useful links and well-defined caegories. I use Play-Asia all the time for grabbing used Saturn and PlayStation One titles and unlike some other nefarious used game sellers, I can safely say the descriptions of the used games are accurate and I've never been annoyed by the condition of a game upon its arrival. As for new games, Play-Asia usually has available "Asia" editions of most titles, these are effectively the same discs as the Japanese editions but come with simplified instructions, often in English and are considerably cheaper than the Japanese equivalent. They have a very useful list on the site describing which XBOX360 titles (I know, not handheld related but still worth a mention) happen to be region free, so you can pick them up at a much more attractive price than your local game store.
Their selection of handheld titles is excellent too, with a superb selection of the latest titles and a healthy back catalogue for each of the current handheld systems. Their GameBoy Advance back catalogue is quite amazing. I'm constantly rummaging through their GBA selection to ponder over the purchase of ludicrously obscure-sounding games that no-one ever appears to have reviewed. The price of the games is often dependant upon their popularity, but don't expect to pay more than 5-10 dollars more than you'd expect from an equivalent title over here (shipping charges apply on top of that though don't forget). One of the best things about Play-Asia is they have a neat loyalty scheme in place. With virtually every order you'll receive money off vouchers to the tune of $5, redeemable on an order of over $50. The cool thing is, if you're a regular frequenter of gaming forums, you'll often find a Play-Asia voucher thread, where people offer up for use vouchers they have no intention of using, if they're about to expire. Free money? Yes please! Play-Asia also deals in game soundtracks, music and movies but not the same extent as YesAsia I've found.
posted November 2, 2006