Atomic's game news roundup -- 26/10/06

Sony shuts down importer Lik-Sang, Xbox 360 claims record sales and the World Cyber Games in Italy wraps up.

In a blow to game importers, Sony has effectively forced the closure of Hong Kong-based parallel game importer Lik-Sang.

The High Court of London rendered Lik-Sang's sales of PSP consoles unlawful, a decision at odds with the views of Lik-Sang. ‘...the judge apparently found that UK law should also apply to Hong Kong exporters. Sony has also threatened Lik-Sang recently to initiate yet another lawsuit to prevent the sales of PlayStation 3 consoles to Europe’, said Pascal Clarysse, Marketing Manager of Lik-Sang.

Sony has stated that ‘we're trying to protect consumers from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards, due to voltage supply differences et cetera’. All Lik-Sang’s imported PSPs have been supplied with Sony’s own power supply, which can accept from 100 to 250 volts, which safely covers the world’s various electrical standards.

Lik-Sang claims it would be unable to contest the case in multiple countries, stating that ‘fighting multiple lawsuits in different countries at the same time and paying high premiums to expensive lawyers is an overwhelming situation for a small company’.

Sony has since washed its hands of any wrongdoing, claiming that because Lik-Sang did not contest the case, its claims were simply ‘sour grapes … aimed to belittle Sony Computer Entertainment and the British judicial system that found against them.’

This is not the first time that Sony has tried to stop importers; ElectricBirdLand was ordered by the UK High Court in June 2005 to cease selling imported PSPs after Sony won an injunction against ElectricBirdLand over trademark infringement.

In other news, the Xbox 360 has sold 100,000 units in Australia since its launch in March 2006, beating the PlayStation 2’s record of 78,000 units within the first seven months of sale. The first four days after its launch helped the Xbox 360 take the record as the fastest selling game console in Australia, when 30,000 units were sold, also another Australian record.

Blizzard has pushed the release date of The Burning Crusade, the expansion to World of Warcraft, forward to January. It has stated the reason for the delay is due to extended beta testing which should ensure a more polished release. We have more information on that story here.

Postal III will be released on both PC and Xbox 360 some time in 2008. We know it uses Half-Life 2’s Steam engine, but doubt the latest iteration will make it past the OFLC uncut.

The World Cyber Games in Monza, Italy, has concluded. The Korean team finished in first place, Russia in second and Germany in third. This marked the first Korean victory in four years. Next year’s competition will be held in Seattle.

2K Games will release Civilization III and IV, Shattered Union and Sid Meier's Pirates! through Valve’s Steam distribution service later this week. The news comes weeks after Activision signed a similar deal to release Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2 and Gun through Steam.

Finally, a few new game sites went live this week, namely Tony Hawk’s Project 8 and Guitar Hero 2, and Star Wars Empire at War: Forces of Corruption has been shipped to stores.