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Lik-Sang To Take On The Big 3?
kableh writes "According to a press release on Lik-Sang's website, the gaming accessory company has new management, and is prepared to mount a strong defense in their upcoming lawsuit against Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. "Just a few days after having received High Court Orders not allowing us to sell Mod Chip products for the Playstation 2 and Flash Linker products for the Nintendo Gameboy Advance, Lik Sang realized that the powers of those three multi-billion dollar corporations are simply infinite compared to the budgets and resources businesses like Lik Sang have available. Their legal actions have been hurting our customers and our business a lot in the last couple of weeks, so that we have finally decided to let somebody else take over Lik-Sang.com and solely concentrate on the lawsuit", says Alex Kampl, Director of Lik Sang International Limited."
"Their legal actions have been hurting our customers and our business a lot"
That's something you don't see often - they mentioned customers first. Lik-Sang really are great, and I'm personally glad to see them sticking it to the man.
Good luck!
Large corporations have too much power.
Sueing only Microsoft is virtualy impossible, sueing Nintendo, Sony AND Microsoft is going to be quite a suicidal task... how much money do they have to burn?
If at first you don't succeed, then sky diving definitely isn't for you.
Why has nothing been done to protect people without money? It's only getting worse.
Where??
Watch some video game commercials on TV. You'll notice that the games are published for GameCube, Playstation 2, Game Boy Advance, PC... and a distinct lack of Xbox support. The only games I see advertized for Xbox are only for Xbox (which suggests poor third-party support), and they've now resorted to the marketing gimmick of giving away free games with the console.
Mod me down all you want, but I can't escape the impression that Xbox is floundering. Software houses that stressed they were going to be hardware agnostic a year ago now... aren't. Barring any miracles, I forsee the Xbox going the way of 3DO in less than a year. They just don't have the first- and second-party support to keep their heads above water.
People, before you reply stating how utterly evil the Microsofts, Nintendos, and other large corporations are, ask yourself this: "What happened to making an honest living?"
Software piracy runs rampant in Asia as it is. Now that Asians are experts at stealing and distributing and profiting from hard Americans' work, they have moved on to bigger and better things, such as violating the contractual agreements of home entertainment consoles by producing illegal modification chips and selling them at a profit.
It would be one thing if they were donating all their profit to some poor country in Africa or something, but as it stands now they're simply pocketing the cash and then crying to all of us about how unfortunate they are.
So, gentlemen, please bite your tongues before you begin to speak out against our corporations and speak out in favor of these evil pirates who stifle good ol' American ingenuity and innovation.
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
Hopefully, it can become a huge PR boost to take on a big powerful company and let the common people know more about these sort of conflicts. That can act as extra incentive for small companies to stick up for their rights and further bring attention to these problems.
-N
I've nothing to say here...
are politician's too, and money goes a long way in swaying pokiticians. how about donating lots of money to the gop and the dnc?
Lets see, 3 grammatical errors in 9 words. Nice try retard. Next time see if you can get your error/content ratio less than 33%.
We had developed a special proprietary media for the GameCube, which makes piracy all but impossible. There is also no internal hard drive to act as storage, either. Therefore, you don't see much GameCube warez or modchips floating about, compared to the PS2 and Xbox scene.
MS and Sony, with their resources, should have invested time and money to develop proprietary media as well.
-- Samir Gupta, Ph. D. Head, New Technology Research Group, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Kyoto, Japan.
if they continue to make and distribute the mod chips without implying that they be used to modify a proprietary system, on what grounds can they be sued?
...then tell the big three were to stick it...
Put a big disclaimer on the side that says:
DO NOT USE THIS CHIP IN PLACE OF U19 IN THE SONY PLAYSTATION 2 MAIN BOARD VER. 1.3, DOING SO WILL VOID THE WARRANTY AND MAY BE A VIOLATION OF APPLICABLE LAW
Karma: Censored (mostly affected by decency laws)
"I understand that this is ruining peoples jobs and lives, but the business of manufacturing or selling mod chips is obviously against the spirit of the law, if not neccessarily the letter of it."
If the spirit of the law is "thou shalt not do with your own property as you see fit," then the law is flawed.
Which law, the law that says once you bought something it's yours to do whatever you like to it? It's this transformation from purchase to "licensing" that's very obviously against the spirit, not only of the law, but also the spirit of capitalism as well.
Librarian: May I help you, young man?
Frustrated kid on computer: I want to get to Lik-Sang, but I can't.
Librarian: Why, you rude young man - leave at once!
Just treat this whole thing as entertainment. Something to discuss. I don't really care one way or the other if they win, but it'll be fun to watch them try and take on a few of the bigger cash piles in the world. Do they even have a real legal leg to stand on? (honest question)
When do americans find time to innovate? They always seem too busy with law-suits.
Also, they seem to make a lot of revenue by patenting something which they have never produced and then sueing the pants of the first person who does produce it
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
M$ already screws over owners of modded Xboxes by banning them from the Live service...why are they going after Lik-Sang still?
I really think its stupid tho how us PS2 owners in the US can't play the uber-cool games that come from Japan. Sony would make soooo much more money if they allowed their PS2's to play US and imported games.
"Some fight for law. Some fight for justice. What will you fight for? One day, you will see."
Look everyone, Scott McCollum of World Tech Tribune! What are you doing among the Linux cultists, ya big troll?
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
flamebait? that shit should be modded as insightful.
MS, Sony and whomever else(never cared for nintendo) have great power.
This was never about protecting their revenues.
They have chosen to use their power to destroy a small business in hong kong that actually sells usefull products that they didn't think of.
Lik Sang is right about this hurting their customers. Their website was punted like a girl from #bearcave
MS has used their power to disrupt a company from selling legitimate products. I was going to buy a 7" LCD screen from liksang at one point and couldn't. I had to get it elsewhere. Oh Wait, no one else sells such usefull products.
They're using their grammar skills there.
May come out for other platforms (AFAIK) the license that X-Box has is not exclusive as there is already a PC version on the way. At least GC should see this title as it might be a little to graphically advanced for the PS2.
:)
Regardless, the only reason that I may get an X-Box is for the mech game, Steel Battalion. It's 200 dollars but the game is a controller, probably AT LEAST as big as the X-Box itself.
Giant Mechs rule.
Have you stepped out of your house? You are completely full of **** not to mention extreamly biased. Go to best buy, funco land, gamestop, ANY PLACE THAT SELLS GAMES.
They have almost as many games and space dedicated to Xbox as PS2. What about Game Cube? About half the space. I am tired of the fact no body cares about facts on Slashdot. Xbox may not be on the top of the charts, or even close in Japan, but its clearly #2 in the United States and analists are predicting XBox will jump even further ahead of the Game Cube this holiday season.
Let me ask you this. Did you know 150,000 people bought XBox Live in the first week? Did you know there are over 200,000 XBox Live users as we speak (With friends/family logging in as guest, plus the 30,000 beta testers).
XBox is definately selling well in the US right now, and its picking up steam. PS/2 is still selling strong. Game Cube.....I don't know all of the facts, but I only know one person who owns one, and the games just aren't in the stores.....atleast the Game Stop and Best Buy near me have very few Game Cube games.
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www.atacomm.com - The Leader in VoIP Product Distributi
This probably isn't the case right now, but shouldn't it be considered a monopoly if one corporation (or an alliance of a few corporations) has so much power that they can simply sue competitors out of business?
I mean, shouldn't all corporations (and people) be equal in the court of law, even if they aren't in the real world. What the heck do they call it "justice" for?
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Open Source Shirts
Here's my take...
In the Napster case, we saw the defendants argue for their software as a means to distributed free/independent/other music. I think that's what Lik-Sang has to argue here; the ability to play foreign games.
However, in both cases we see another, huge aspect: the ability to distributed copyrighted music (Napster) and the ability to play pirated games (mod-chips).
Do we really have to wonder how this one will turn out? Yeah, Lik-Sang might have a minor issue here, but when the product is being used by so many people to do much illegality, I don't see how any logical person can permit its existence.
rhetorical question
The thing that kills me about MS, Sony, and Nintendo flexing their corporate might here is that this isn't software we're talking about. This isn't a licensed product...when you buy a PS2, you OWN it, and whatever you choose to do to it once you own, wether that is playing with it, smashing it to bits, reselling it, or fucking around with the hardware, that's YOUR choice. They have no legal say into the matter, so they should have no sway over Lik-Sang for selling a chip that modifies said hardware.
It really chaps my ass that this should even need to GO to court.
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
I thought big3 refered to Ford, Chrysler and GM.
This made me think they were somehow relating their legal issues to the recent congressional bills that called on the Big3 to release the specs on their modules communications and error messages in their cars which would of course allow to some degree the "modding" of automobiles.
I guess not...
They are probably doing it for the PR. They will probably lose, but they will get a fair bit of PR (public relations -- free advertising) from it. They also will get some credit for 'fighting the good fight' even though mod chips can be used to aid copyright violations.
Good Luck Lik-Sang!
We both that nintendo isn't involved in this suit for the modchips, but rather for the gba flash carts (and gbc). Just how much does developer hardware cost that developers prefer the piracy hardware to your own custom tools? Apparently the pirate hardware is more efficient for them to run as its A) cheaper and B) faster. I've heard stories of testing multiplayer games on illegal flashcarts because they "burn" faster. Hell, on an interview on TechTV or ZDTV or whatever with Iguana soft, there's a clip of Turok 2 running on n64 copier.
Is this really a problem nintendo wants to solve by litigation?
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
"Also I think Xbox live might make them more of a viable competitor,"
I definately agree with you on this one. As much as we like to bash Microsoft, they did well with X-box live. It has finally taken the online PC gaming experience and brought it over to consoles. However, I don't think it will be too succesful. Not always does the most technically superior devices win. I am speaking of X-box Live when I talk about this, because its nice and has loads of features, but is descriminating to a lot of users. This discrimination, mainly a broadband only, networked party is what I'm talking about and it is also what makes it so good. The truth is, not many PC users have broadband connections, and I"m willing to bet that even fewer still actually have their broadband networked. relying on networked broadband x-box users is a big step for Microsoft and they have a lot of balls for doing this. I for one would be the first to laugh at their f#ckups, but they stepped out and did it. They are innovating this time, by taking a big risk.
Personally, I think its gonna fail miserably because there won't be enough support. Give it another 4 or 5 years for broadband and home networking to catch on before it really kicks off. HOwever, we won't actually be "there" in the next 5 years unless somebody starts.
13 year old white supremacists are shitty web designers.
I always like to see the big boys get sued if they are trying to stomp on their little guys to impose their own will. BUT, what I do not understand is why this other company is taking over Lik Sang.
Don't get me wrong -- I do welcome it. But it is an awefully strange business decision from that company's point of view. What they're doing is taking over a company that
So, what I want to know is what this new company's motivation is. Is the rest of Lik Sang's product line so valuable that it's worth all that? It seems unlikely given the risk, but maybe so. Or, is that other company taking a true selfless action in order to establish a good legal precedent? Or, is there something else I don't see?
Microsoft has aquired Pacific Game Technology (Holding) Limited.
P.S.
It was sort of glossed over in the story, but it was Pacific Game Technology (Holding) Limited that took over Lik-Sang.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Let me remind you that SEGA was the first to take the PC online gaming experience to the consoles. They did it with the Saturn's Netlink, and the Dreamcast was pretty successful at bringing games online (for how many Dreamcast units were in homes).
1/4 = 25%
I am writing this from my couch browsing the internet with my Dreamcast. The Dreamcast scene is still alive and well. I honestly believe hacking would improve sales. I would NEVER have bought a DC if it did not have other uses. Two years down the road ANY game console and the hundreds you spent on games will be outdated and borderline useless unless you can find something else to do with it.. You might as well get out of it what you can. My Atari, Sega Master system, NES, SNES and the roughly thousands of dollars I spent on them are junk. The DC is still useful and probably will be for 10 times longer then anything before it..
"The only games I see advertized for Xbox are only for Xbox (which suggests poor third-party support),"
Do you know how exclusive titles work? It sure doesn't sound like you have half a clue.
To drive up sales of the Xbox is why the release them! If a game is just for the Xbox, I know that the development team will have had more time to make it work brilliantly on the Xbox.
Also, if the exclusive game is something I really, really want (like Shenmue 2x, Jet Set Radio Future, etc), I am more likely to buy the Xbox to get the access to those exclusive games. I bought an Xbox for JSRF, for example. Platform exclusive games boost sales a lot (the N64 lived and died only for Mario Party, the Zeldas, and Mario 64 for me).
As for multiplatform games, if I have the choice between a game which runs on the PS2, GameCube, and Xbox, I know that the Xbox one will look better than the PS2 or GameCube version, but that it won't have any of the features of the Xbox taken advantage of. It's a bit of a mixed bag that way, but you'd still be foolish to buy the PS2 or GameCube version over the Xbox version (unless you like jaggy-ass graphics, or prefer to limit yourself in terms on online play).
"and they've now resorted to the marketing gimmick of giving away free games with the console."
Maybe you live in a cave, and have no impression of time. But this is the Giftmas shopping season. Sony's not making any deals, but Microsoft has put out its value added package, and Nintendo has cut the price on its GameCube again in order to drive lucrative sales. The largest percentage of console sales happen in the next 4 weeks, and they're looking to load up their consumer base. It's not a gimmick, it's plain sense!
"They just don't have the first- and second-party support to keep their heads above water."
Do you even know what that means? First-party would be Microsoft itself. How is the (potential) failure of the Xbox going to harm them, when they make the licence fee + 3rd-party fee on each Microsof game they sell? Second-party would be someone like Rare, who has a deal which lets them get a little lower licence cost for making Xbox games, because they will only produce Xbox games ever (which is helped since Microsoft owns the majority of the company). Maybe you are thinking of third-party (unaffiliated developer) titles. Third-parties like Sega are sure as hell keeping the Xbox going, with many great sequels to Dreamcast titles that sold millions of copies being kept Xbox exclusive (they get a better licence negotiation this way).
You seem like you have no idea how the console indurstry works. Hopefully this clears things up for you. If you don't like Microsoft, just say it. Don't make up stuff about how the industry works inside your mind, when it's way out of tough with reality.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
But moding a GameCube to be all region is less than the pre-done bundle they offer.
The gamebackups themselves are illegal because there is no method they use to verify if someone owns a copy or not.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I don't know about you, but most of the games in the GameCube section at EB are 59$ to 69$, while the Xbox and PS2 sections are 74$ to 79$ for most games. A new PS2 or Xbox is 300$, while the GameCube is 200$. When you consider the 14% tax I pay in my province on purchases, the GameCube really is the least expensive console.
:)
Capcom is really good at aggresively pricing the Resident Evil series on the GameCube. I'm ready to sell all my Dreamcast Resident Evil games to offset costs
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Upon reading the headline, I couldn't help but remember the Onion's 1970's headline (from their Our Dumb Century collection)- Japanese Amuse GM Engineers With Attempt To Build Car
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
Within the next year and a half, what percentage of computer users and gamers do you expect to own DVD burners? Of these people, how many are willing to spend the money and effort necessary to obtain media for these devices just to play pirated video games? The few people I know of who own DVD burners use them for backing up large amounts of data, not for copying DVDs. The DVD piracy war will hardly even scratch the current generation of game systems. It probably won't even come into being until the X-Box 2, Playstation 3 and the Nintendo SmallerMoreColorfulExpensiveThing are already out.
With the PS2, it may be different, simply because the console actually can play CDs, which can be burned fairly easily, but with the X-Box and Gamecube, it's highly impractical, even with a mod chip, to pirate games. Gamecube mods, which consist of a switch and a couple of wires, are about region coding. The X-Box mods are all about running unlicensed software, like Linux and MPlayer.
The way Lik-Sang is being attacked is not about piracy, but about control. Microsoft doesn't want to lose $250 per console (I've heard it takes ten game sales to recoup the loss from a sold X-Box), and Nintendo doesn't want people to break their market segmentation. Whether you believe these companies should lose money this way is irrelevant; do you really think we ought to be left holding the bag for their flawed business models? I want my X-Theater-Box, and if Microsoft really thinks it's a good idea to sell a $550 console for $250, then they need a reality check.
The real reason all 3 companies are sueing Lik-sang is becuase they want to keep their regional game monopolies regional. They sell more expensive in the US than in europe, or vice versa, or they may sell then in japan for 3x as much as in amercia. It's mostly statistics and how they can extract the optimum amount of money. As we all know the lower the price of an item, the more it well sell and vice versa, the more expensive an item is the less it will sell. Throwing all other factors aside, you'll notice that when you plot a graph of this you get a nice curve. Find the optimum point ont he curve, and estemate for those other factors, do some tricky math, and you find metroid prime should be selling at $49.99 in europe and $59.99 in the USA to make the maximum amount of money, even though they are the same game. So, they regionalize their systems, which is inexpensive, and they increase their profits by fixing the market price of their units. Illegally, mind you. Then, some guy comes along with a soddering iron, figures out how to bypass it. Some company starts selling chips becuase the guy figured he can save $20-40 a game by buying it in europe, or some european can get a game 5 months in advance of it's european release, and you start having problems with those statistics. In short, shops would literally spring up overnight to do this kind of thing if retailers didn't think they'd get the full wraith of hades forced upon them. Another thing. The system is designed to play the game while the disk is in. They don't make nay fancy carrieing cases or fancy protective gear for the game when it's on CD. So, over time, the CD will become damaged to the point where it has to be rebaught. By making sure the person can't play the game in the future, and by making sure that you can force people to buy a new game when the original breaks, you can further increase your profit margins. Then when someone questions them, they pay off the reporter or person, or tell them that they do it to ward off piracy then deny the fact that, statistically, they are completly incorrect. They then release the statistics at the end of the year, round off to some big number, and then publish it for joe-smoe's kid to use in his report. So no, it's not hard work anymore. It's the fact that one guy is good at something, and another guy who isn't as good decided to take legal action so he can compete. Game designers, on the other hand, I have a certain respect for. They do work hard and I bet they enjoy every moment of it.
Candy-Coated Knowledge
you'd better fire up that Canadian Google you've got there, and search for the definition of "eschew," eh?
RICO: The US Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was
originally written to target organized crime. It allowed the courts to attack "enterprises"
that engage in a "pattern of racketeering."
"Let me remind you that SEGA was the first to take the PC online gaming"
Right.
"They did it with the Saturn's Netlink,"
Wrong. They did it with the X-Band Modem for Genesis. And after that, Nintendo dabbled on a satellite service for the Super Famicom, but it didn't pan out either.
But I suspect that they'd be able to get some mini-DVs. They can make mini-CDs for promotional purposes, why not order a run of 10,000 mini-DVDs? The Nintendo smaller size was just to discourage casual piracy.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I have no experience that way :) I've heard that the GameCube situation is similar, with the custom dev kit having a rich library for audio and video. The PL2 used in some games comes from using a separate DK that can be bought from another company (Factor 5's MusyX development tool, as it's know, is what added PL2 to Rogue Leader, and other games).
I just wish Nintendo had enforced PL2 on all games, like Microsoft mandates 5.1 on all Xbox games (which outputs through either DD or DTS modes).
The PS2, while capable of PL2 now thanks to a recent development kit released for it, only has 2 or 3 games out which support it.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I would also like to remind you that even though Sega did it first, it was MODEM BASED! Because the Dreamcast came with a modem, some of the nice goodies offered by the X-box, like speech and updates et al couldn't be offered. Also, you had slight lag problems, but sega had some talented programmers to deal with those. later on, when the dreamcast was cracked, you also had a rash of cheaters on PSO and what not. Not to discount sega for doing it right first, but Microsoft if doing it righter/better (thats not even a word) and is not making the same mistakes.
13 year old white supremacists are shitty web designers.
mod up
13 year old white supremacists are shitty web designers.
I wonder how far you'd get by getting a cheap-assed lawyer to defend you.
OK, incorperate a company with NO fundage whatsoever. Then have your cheap assed lawyer answer all the legal bull until you get to trial. Once you are in trial, do things like asking Steve Balmer if it'd be ok if you smash an XBOX you just bought. Then proceed to smash it. 2 days later, make him come back and ask him if it'd be ok if you unscrew the XBOX. Let him go back to Seattle. 2 days later, call him back and ask him if you can put a baseball card inside your XBOX.
Basicly, keep the CEOs of the companies there for the entire trial. Make it expensive for the company to defend itself. Call everyone from the guy that thought about the XBOX the first time all the way up to the very top of MS. And keep these hundreds of witnesses there the whole time. Call them to the stand and ask a question. Then just waste as much time as possible.
I wonder what the MS response would be to having hundreds of employees called away to trial would be? Couple that with their expensive assed lawyers, and you just made the trial painful to MS.
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
Unlike the GameGear (which had no decent games), and the Saturn (which was hard to develop for, leading to fewer games), the Dreamcast had a lot of great titles. However, Sony's FUD about the PS2 kept adoption lower than it otherwise would've been. Once the PS2 finally released, people started to buy it because it could do PS1 games and DVD movies, with the expectation that good PS2 games would also come out. My opinion is that no such good games ever did come out. The Dreamcast used a better graphics card that was easier to program for, and produced a better quality image (IMO).
:)). That's why console makers know to try and woo third-party developers with lucrative contracts, so they can get a comparative advantage for their library.
:) (I keep my eye on prices)
You're right stating that inferior systems can win, assuming they have a larger array of titles available (NES, PSX), but whenever you have the situation where you have competition between alternate platforms, people tend towards the console with the highest quality. I firmly believe that if every game put out was put out for all 3 consoles, everyone would migrate towards the Xbox based on the strength of the Xbox specs over everything else, and the built-in harddrive (no more memory card issues
I'm not sure why you don't see a price cut. Wal-mart (not Wal*mart, as I'm in Canada) has Platinum GameCubes for 195$ CDN. This works out to ~125$ USD. I'm selling my Jet GameCube to get a Platinum one
"Final Fantasy VII and VIII were better looking on the PC than the PSX. So why didn't they sell as many copies for the PC as they did with the PSX?"
Maybe you've never looked in to it, but PC gaming is very tiny. Because of the troubles of keeping systems updated, patched, and upgraded hardware wise -- in addition to the games -- most people just buy consoles instead. The PC gaming market is about 10-15% of all gaming in general. In addition to that, FF7 required some very specific configurations to work correctly. It often would not run on most PCs because the DX version was newer than what they developed for, or because the 3D card driver didn't conform to a certain behaviour. FF8 was never as popular as FF7 (I bought it for 20$, played it for 5 minutes, and have never touched it since).
"... Sony feels their current market position is good enough that taking such a risk isn't needed."
Sony cut the price of the PS2 in Japan by 3000 Yen, even though they've sold the most units there this year (3 million units PS2, 900,000 units GameCube, 250,000 units Xbox). Is that a risk? No, I think they just want to boost console + game sales over the holidays. Ditto for MS, as they are pushing their packages more aggresively since they now have some games to justify the system as a holiday purchase.
Microsoft sales are not "neck and neck" with Nintendo overall. Each region has its own stats. In Australia, for example, both the PS2 and Xbox sold 10,000 units in the last week. The GameCube sold 1,000 units over the same week. However, in Japan, the stats are 30k for the PS2, 16k for the GameCube, and 1,300 for the Xbox. These numbers are again different for North America.
As for MS' situation, I think you're overstating it. It's still too soon to make such judgements. The PS2 is showing its age, and Microsoft has just started to lever their online service. Nintendo, unlike Microsoft and Sony, has a strong history of first-party games that rock (it's how they brought gaming back to life in the early 1980s, and the major flaw of Sony and MS -- no strong game branding exists on those platforms that is first-party).
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
off the record, Nintendo, et al. aren't too concerned about importing of games (and DVDs, etc), compared to piracy.
What about homebrew software development for Nintendo consoles such as the GBA? Here's what I've gathered about Nintendo's behavior in practice:
We just have the region locks to keep the suits happy
Specifically, 1) to distinguish 50 Hz (Europe/Australia) and 60 Hz (Japan/America) consoles, and 2) to solve the "Peter Pan problem", where different entities own a particular franchise in different markets. (Barrie's Peter Pan is in PD in >=1923 USA and life+50 Japan but not in life+70 EU.) So why did Nintendo put Japan vs. America region locks on the NES, Super NES, N64, and GCN consoles, but not on the GBA system?
Will I retire or break 10K?
If Microsoft buys a mod chip vendor:
Will I retire or break 10K?
Some time ago, Sony tried to get US customs to stop Lik-Sang from shipping PS2 mod chips to the US. Of course, US Customs doesn't know a mod chip from a power cord, and they ended up seizing a serial cable, which made both Sony and US Customs look like a bunch of idiots. So it seems that after waiting for all the bad publicity from that incident to die down, Sony rounded up a few friends and is going after Lik-Sang again with a somewhat more aggressive tactic.
Alien Front Online featured voice chat over modem, and it had no lag at all. Their was also a broadband adapter that was available in very limited supply. Unfortunately, it didn't work with all games.
Well, you should read the DMCA (search for 17 USC 1201). That law essentially exists to outlaw mod chips, cable descramblers, etc. It's written with hardware in mind; that's why they're always talking about "circumvention devices" and not circumvention programs!
Now, I don't like the DMCA (especially after my own run-in ) but what you say in your post is simply wrong; they have a fairly strong case against Lik-Sang. Here are the reasons I can think of that the case isn't completely clear-cut:
- The DMCA might be unconstitutional
- Lik Sang is in another country (China?) and is probably not really under the jurisdiction of the DMCA
- Mod chips have other non-circumvention uses: playing import games, hobbyist development
This reminds me of that story about a city in Japan named USA. Thus, they could sell their products as "Made in USA".
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Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
You aren't buying a product, you're buying a service. The service is a license. If you don't want it so much because you rent it instead of owning it, don't pay so much for it. If you don't want it at the price they're charging, don't buy it at all.
I don't see what's anti-capitalist, anti-free-market, or anti-consumer about that.
Many posters seem to be operating under the delusion that the MS/Sony/Nintendo lawsuit has been filed in the USA, even going so far as to cite the DMCA.
This is false, the lawsuit was filed in Hong Kong, a city-state notable for having some of the weakest copyright protections in the industrialized world. "Pirate" products of all sorts (everything from pirate PS1s to Gucci ripoffs) are sold openly in Hong Kong. And this isn't even a pirate product, just a modification to an existing product. I'm far from an expert on Hong Kong law, but I don't think HK has anything even remotely similar to the DMCA.
Of course, Microsoft etc. could easily win by bribing the PRC. This wouldn't help them against the 500 other "Lik-Sangs" that would leap in to fill the void.
"FWIW, Square is effectively a first-party for Sony and they have the extremely lucrative Final Fantasy franchise. Sony also has GTA and Metal Gear Solid."
Square lost ~120 million on their movie. The result: Tactics Advance, Crystal Chronicles, and more for Nintendo platforms. Not exactly 1st or 2nd party anymore.
Mech Assault is just a Live! game to play. It's not very deep, especially compared to Steel Battalion (which I also own and enjoy).
"Of course, none of these are a big as Mario or Zelda, but they're beginning to lose their shine a bit.
Mario's shines were good, but it was just Mario64++. I think Zelda will be a great hit, though. Especially with the preorder disc in Japan, rumoured to also be coming to North America. 3 games for the price of 1! Nintendo is really pulling out the stops to make up for the N64.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Since Square and Enix are merging. I still see the friendlyness of Square and Nintendo to be more money-motivated than anything else.
:)
Mech Assault is ok. It's fun. But I haven't really had the chance to play past the first 5 or so levels. RE0, Metroid Prime, and Metroid Fusion are much more addicting. And everyone has to see Steel Battalion in action when they visit
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
The problems of business administration in general, and database management in
particular are much to difficult for people that think in IBMese, compounded
with sloppy english.
-- Edsger Dijkstra
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