Sony to Impound Imported PSP's

[Moog101]

To anyone who's imported a PSP into the UK may want to have a read of this...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1512591,00.html

:eek:

[_pb_boi]

Surely it's the companies importing that are to blame.. no?

Anyway - with any luck, the court will just state that Sony should stop waiting so bloody long to bring the console to the UK market in the first place, then the grey imports might not have occurred - at least not in the numbers they did.

andy.

[Moog101]

The part that surprised me was at the end of the article it says..

"We will continue to be vigilant and, where necessary, take appropriate action against those unlawfully importing PSPs into Europe."

I was never aware that it was illegal to import PSP's into another country. When I was in Tokyo I went to the huge Sony center in Ginza and they were happily selling PSP's "Duty Free" to people who were going to be taking them out the country..

[Applespider]

The 'grey market' is a tough one for companies. Look at all the trouble Tesco had over their Levis a few years ago where the courts finally decided that Tesco couldn't sell Levis without Levis permission.

The European Court of Justice in November backed Levi's argument, saying that retailers could not sell branded goods from outside Europe without the consent of the trademark owner.

This is the same thing - Sony don't want companies selling them yet. I expect they'll go after the companies, get the products back from consumers to make people wary of buying in the future and the consumers will have to sue the companies to get their money back.

The Sony shop in Ginza would sell them to individuals but not to companies who would then sell them.

[Spock]

What the heck does sony care they are still getting money from every PSP sold, do they not?

[Loge]

This is the same thing - Sony don't want companies selling them yet. I expect they'll go after the companies, get the products back from consumers to make people wary of buying in the future and the consumers will have to sue the companies to get their money back.

I certainly think it will make consumers wary of buying from Sony in the future. :p

[Moog101]

I certainly think it will make consumers wary of buying from Sony in the future. :p

I agree. I would think that the people who can afford to pay the price to buy luxury items and also have them imported are the very people that Sony shouldn't be alienating.

Currently most of my living room is filled with various Sony products, if it comes to the point that I get my imported PSP impounded then I certainly won't be buying anything else from them in the future..

Also, if Sony don't want grey imports, why make all the games region free? :confused: Unless they expect people who get their imported PSP taken away, to happily pop down the shop and buy another local region one.

[Moog101]

This is the same thing - Sony don't want companies selling them yet. I expect they'll go after the companies, get the products back from consumers to make people wary of buying in the future and the consumers will have to sue the companies to get their money back.

I wonder if they'll also charge us postage and packaging to send them back to their country of origin? That would really take the ****.

[raggedjimmi]

maybe im missing something but why on earth would you import a PSP? aren't they region locked? surely those lemons who imported US PSP's to the UK will only be able to play US games from now on?

[Linkjeniero]

I think this is ridiculous and outrageous. How can Sony have the legal right to get that info and impound legally bought equipement? Even if they're after companies that import them, what difference does it make? All my life I used to believe that once you buy something it belongs to you, and you're free to do with it as you see fit (including selling it to somebody else), but this is becoming less and less true, with all the "licencing", "regions", and stuff like that (like the idiotic ruling on the Tesco-Levi case). If I was living in the UK and had an imported PSP, I'd flat out lie and say it got stolen or something like it. And then they bitch about people breaking the laws... with stupid laws like that one, I believe is almost a duty to break them :mad:

[Sun Baked]

In the US, they don't take the grey market product from the consumer.

But some companies wash their hands of the product completely and will not honor the warranty, since quite a few of those are region specific.

[Linkjeniero]

In the US, they don't take the grey market product from the consumer.

But some companies wash their hands of the product completely and will not honor the warranty, since quite a few of those are region specific.

Now that I find more sensible; after all, the warranty specifically states where it's valid; at least, when I buy an import to anyone other than a distributor of the brand, I know what I'm risking. Besides, often the import store will offer some kind of warranty (I'm very familiar with this since in my country only Nintendo has a distributor for their consoles; Sony and Microsoft consoles are import-only). Thankfully, in my country there are no laws that will support Sony to come to my house and steal my PS2, only because it's an import.

[WhiteSavage]

Sony must see the idiocy in taking back the PSP's... I mean, is that "customer loyalty" in its finest or what? Are they gonna ask for them or go door to door yelling, "Sony!" and demanding the PSP? I'd expect something like this from Microsoft... but I had a little more respect for Sony.

I'm just glad that I know Apple wouldn't do anything like this... ever :D :rolleyes: :) :cool:

[mkrishnan]

Just out of curiosity, I remember that when the PS2 came out, it was considered powerful enough to qualify for US munitions import/export laws (after the famous business with t-shirts that had the PGP algorithm printed on them so that they too would be considered munitions :D) ... is this sort of thing relevant to the PSP in UK?

Usually, companies look the other way on this because it's a relatively minor component. Usually it's mostly people importing Japanese versions of consoles so that they can play J-games before they make it to the West. And usually the manufacturer has every right to refuse service, but not necessarily to impound the imports. I wonder what makes them illegal. Unless it's an interpretation of laws for *software* and media for the bootstrap ROM of the console???

Anyway, it'd be sad if the look-the-other-way policy on this ended. I like playing Japanese games every once in a while.

[WhiteSavage]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=9706

All is well :)

[raggedjimmi]

sorry but im still curious. why would anyone import a PSP when its region locked? have hackers already cracked it or something because i would be slightly reluctant to spend £50 importing games from the US.

[R.Youden]

i remember about 8 years or so ago Mizuno the sports manufacturer made a very successful golf club. To stop the similar imports as with the PSP they made the European and American clubs slightly different colours even though they where exactly the same club. The only problem was that this encouraged people to import them so they got rare clubs as collectors items!!

[GFLPraxis]

This is the same thing - Sony don't want companies selling them yet. I expect they'll go after the companies, get the products back from consumers to make people wary of buying in the future and the consumers will have to sue the companies to get their money back.



Better plan; consumer spends a bunch of money to buy a PSP from Sony and import it.

Sony takes away PSP.

Sony launches UK PSP's.

Consumer has to buy ANOTHER PSP.

Sony makes double the money.

Sony very happy.

[mkrishnan]

sorry but im still curious. why would anyone import a PSP when its region locked? have hackers already cracked it or something because i would be slightly reluctant to spend £50 importing games from the US.

I think that perhaps you don't understand, because the desire to be on the bleeding edge is not as strong with you as it is with the market for these imported units. The people who want them consider it a fair trade to pay more money and get a potentially crippled machine, in order to have it months or a year in advance of others. As for only being able to play imported games, well, by the time the local version comes out, they will already have played the local games, and want the latest imports.

Also, not with respect to an imported US version, but with respect to an imported Japanese version, usually there are many, many games which are never ported to the western market, and so if people want to play them, they must play them on cracked or imported hardware.

It really isn't *that much* different from people who spend $300 on the latest cell phone, when they know that it will be free in a year's time, is it?

I'm usually not in this market either, but I have to admit that I bought a region decoder cartridge for my Sega Saturn, back in the day, and an import Japanese game that never hit the US is probably still among my favorite console games ever (Radiant Silvergun).

Also, even if the crack doesn't exist yet, I'm sure many are banking on the fact that such cracks have eventually developed for pretty much every game system in history that had region lockouts.

[pulsewidth947]

If sony were so bothered about imports, why not discriminate against us Europeans by releasing the PSP 9 months after the initial launch in Japan? At the end of the day I could have a PSP now, paying the same price as when it will eventually come out, so whats the point in waiting?!

I bought one anyway, and I'd like to see Sony try and take it off me. "Nah mate, I havent got one.. someone nicked it/my dog eat it/whats a psp/i like your boots/etc"

Once again I end up hating large companies. I think the only large company that I still like is Apple. Hopefully that wont change, although they probably employ factory workers at bare minimum wages, but thats another thread :)

[TDM21]

sorry but im still curious. why would anyone import a PSP when its region locked? have hackers already cracked it or something because i would be slightly reluctant to spend £50 importing games from the US.

The PSP is region locked partly. The games are region free, but the movies and music are still region locked. Here is an article: http://www.bdgamer.net/?itemid=15286, and another: http://psp.ign.com/articles/561/561098p1.html.

[Poff]

Hah. Can't believe they can actually do that. Everyone should be allowed to buy products and sell them again. Maybe Sony should go after the stores actually selling them to the british companies..?

If they knocked on my door, I would never give it to them.. :eek:

[tobio]

It has already been answered, but PSPs arent region locked (at least where games are concerned) So us in the UK would import them because
A) we dont particularly want to wait a year for an identical product, that will
B) cost more at RRP than it would to get one imported, including delivery and duties and everything.

Although sony had not to my knowledge announced a launch price, i think it was a pretty safe bet they were going to ask £199, and that there would be very few available at launch so that demand would be high, and shops could sell them bundled with a game or two and people would pay over the odds for them

now I can go to at least two nearby shops right now and buy a PSP for £190, plenty in stock. If i go to online shops (in the UK i might add, e.g. www.gbax.com) i can get one for even less.

Sony is just pissed that they wont be able to sell us their new toy at a rip off price, and they are doing everything they can to try and bully small shops and scare consumers into waiting, so that they can make that teeny bit more profit. Or, perhaps they are under pressure from the big shops like EB, Toys r Us, Game, Dixons group etc. who always want us to pre-order everything... they are the ones who are getting hurt because people are going to be cancelling their pre-orders, and those high profile shops can't be seen selling the import machines, so they are powerless to do anything about it.

not that i would know about any of that of course...

[Uma888]

lucky for me, i got mine yonks ago, i got one from the states and one from hong kong (for a measily £89.99 :D :D )

[raggedjimmi]

but the PSP is intended as a multimedia centre no? id be seriously annoyed if all i could do was play games on it (going off the current releases), especially when that relegates that to nothing more than a watered down PS2 without a movie player?

id just wait, it was released with few games so by the time its in the UK it would have a bigger library too. and Game would likely flog a few of the earlier games in for free.

[jared_kipe]

I understand how Sony decides to crush the importers, but I don't see why. If nothing else it drums up support for the product before the initial release.