Video: London Riots Engulf Sony DADC UK Warehouse in Flames

[buffaoo monty]

Today Sony has reported that their DADC UK distribution warehouse in north London was engulfed in flames as violence in the capital continued for a third night.

Below is some video footage courtesy of CoolChrisVilla via YouTube, and although this isn't really PS3 news per se, it will definitely impact the gaming side of Sony's empire in the UK.

To quote: The music industry has become the latest victim of the riots ripping through London after a 20,000 sq metre distribution warehouse owned by Sony was burnt to the ground by rioters, destroying vast quantities of stock.

“We can confirm that the Sony DADC UK distribution centre in Enfield has been damaged by a fire which was reported around 11:30pm, 8th August. There have been no injuries to employees,” Sony said in a statement.

“The fire is under control but can be described as ‘smouldering’, consequently no one can enter the facility. Therefore at this time we are unable to confirm the extent of the damage or the cause until the fire is fully extinguished and a full investigation can be carried out by authorities.”

The Digital Audio Disc Corporation centre is the group’s sole distribution base in the UK. The impact however will be felt beyond Sony operations as the warehouse is home to movie, gaming and music distributors.

While the extent of the fire damage remains unclear, the incident threatens to disrupt the supply of products in the near term and casts a long shadow over the future of smaller businesses which are already operating in a tough economic climate.

There are particular concerns over the loss of stock within the independent music industry as the warehouse was used by PIAS, a leading distributor of CDs for more than 100 independent labels, including the Beggars Group, Domino and Warp. These groups represent artists such as Adele, Gil Scott-Heron and Warpaint.

Darren Hemmings, PIAS’ head of digital marketing, tweeted: “I can confirm that the Sony DADC warehouse in Enfield did burn to the ground, and Sony holds PIAS stock.”

More PlayStation 3 News...

[PS3 News]

I have now moved this to our general news section and main page, and +Rep for sharing the news buffaoo monty!

[DaedalusMinion]

GTA acted as a "catalyst" for the London riots: http://tbreak.com/megamers/34452/news/gta-acted-as-a-catalyst-for-the-london-riots/

A London police officer has blamed Rockstars’ flagship title, Grand Theft Auto, for the riots that broke out in the city over the weekend.

According to MCV, the Tottenham police officer believed the game acted as a “catalyst” for the events that saw shops looted and public property set on fire.

This was reported by the London Evening Standard, which also quotes a Enfield resident who shared the same belief.

The first print of the newspaper, apparently, carried ‘GTA’ in it’s title, however further prints only says “inspired by video game”, as shown below.

[PSPSwampy]

Seriously?!!! - always with the damn "I blame Video games" argument.

I wish people would get a clue before blaming the gaming industry for stuff like this - i blame the dumbass holigans myself!

[9nihn]

so what you are saying is that a building holding a cache of the old "hackable" consoles just happen to catch fire under convenient circumstance... right before a new batch of "unhackable" console are about to hit... seems legit...

[gygabyte666]

Oh Boo hoo Sony. You stopped caring about your customers a loooooooong time ago. Why the hell should we care what happens to you? I say we all grab a full gas can, box of matches and march to the nearest Sony center and have us some fun too. Those greedy pricks don't deserve any consumer support. Rot you filthy, soulless nazis... or maybe I should say, burn? *muhahaha*

[sika]

These Riots are NOT fun mate, I was caught up in the one at Birmingham & have returned home to see wolverhampton is the same, You obviously care about sony thats why your on a ps3 website, i agree sony haven't been the best but they are only defending their console, their creation, not ours.

[elser1]

gta LOL maybe crysis 2 is to blame for the alien invasion.. LOL get some help..

[gygabyte666]

These Riots are NOT fun mate, I was caught up in the one at Birmingham & have returned home to see wolverhampton is the same, You obviously care about sony thats why your on a ps3 website, i agree sony havnt been the best but they are only defending their console, their creation, not ours.

Your opinion. I personally would love to take part in some riots/boycotting for various reasons. You are wrong again. I care for my PS3. The company who made it could blow up tomorrow and I wouldn't lose a wink of sleep over it. If the same happened to my PS3, I would be quite hurt but I probably wouldn't buy a replacement because that would benefit Sony.

They have every right to defend their system. I don't blame them, but after it has been purchased they have no more attachments to it. Owners should feel free to tinker and mess around with whatever they want. If they void a warranty during that time, then it's just the user's fault and Sony shouldn't have to take any responsibility for the user's actions.

However, telling/demanding to people that they are only 'renting' their console from Sony is completely insane. Any company who acts that way should get what's coming to them. Sadly, it'll probably never happen, at least not the magnitude at which it should.

I use to trust and love the company and everything they made but going through blow after blow of their unearthly, asinine horsesass, I lost my faith in them as both a company and very much like a friend that i've had for years. Watching them destroy themselves and slowly lose pieces of their fanbase from all the horrible decisions they were making was very hard for me because I was so attached to them.

Point is, there is a line that Sony crossed for me awhile ago and I just don't see how I could ever look at them the same way anymore. Don't judge me either. You don't know me nor do I, you.

[dragonkeeper300]

NOOO! all those poor ps3