Phantom Game Console Presentation 237
superultra writes "Glaximus has posted an impressions piece on Penny-Arcade of one of Infinium Lab's first press conferences. Most notable is that which Gabe, of Penny-Arcade fame, also replicates on Penny-Arcade's front page: 'One of the last questions asked was rather direct and perhaps aimed a bit low. "So, I have all my consoles at home, and I have a very powerful PC that plays lots of games and can be upgraded simply by installing new hardware myself. Why would I want to buy a Phantom?" Rob's answer? "Well then you aren't really part of the Phantom's core user base." That got some chuckles from the crowd, sure. But it was Rob's next statement that had the real impact. "See, you people say you have enough consoles, and a powerful PC, but whenever a new console comes out, you people always buy it."' Other details are scarce, except that the release date is now April 2004, and that the Phantom will use highly advanced DMCA techniques such as Epoxy Encapsulation and Case Intrusion Detection. Doing so will, no doubt, provide the Missing Link in Digital Rights Managment."
Blink, Blink (Score:5, Insightful)
Can't beat free publicity.
Not quite... (Score:5, Insightful)
We didn't buy the 3D0, TurboGrafx-16, or Jaguar, did we?
ya know (Score:5, Insightful)
Know your Market.
A broadband fed video game console is not exactly new, ya know. (Sega's SegaNet for the Genesis, JagNet for the Atari Jaguar, etc) Neither is DRM technology. (Those of you that cracked Commodore games can now raise your hand, thank you all)
The video game market is really filled with thrill junkies. Looking for their latest fix. Weither that is Donkey Kong Country or Final Fantasy X-II, in the end, "It's the games, stupid."
If they can't name a single game, they're grasping at straws. A joke in an ATX case.
Site is already, slow, so here's the article text. (Score:2, Insightful)
Phantom Impressions
By Glaximus [mailto]
The Presentation
A crowd of about 300 had gathered in one of Full Sail's larger classrooms for the monthly meeting of the Orlando chapter of the International Game Developers Association. Our guest speakers for the night were Infinium Labs, the company behind the oft-maligned and highly mysterious Phantom console. They were cautious with information, and while they did spill some details about the system, it's hardware, and their business model, they left a lot of critical questions unanswered. It was information about The Phantom, however, which until now had been almost non-existent.
The speaker for most of the presentation was Robert Shambro, one of two large Italian fellows who looked like they could moonlight as enforcement agents for various underground loan agencies. Rob spoke eagerly and seemed genuinely excited to present the Phantom and it's details to the crowd, but there was definitely a shiny coating of PR and spin covering the words of his oration. The other speaker was a third man, a generally non-descript laid back fellow by the name of Tim Roberts, who is the CEO of Infinium Labs. He answered a few questions but for the most part Rob did all the talking.
Yes, they did bring an actual Phantom "console" to the meeting. It looked exactly like the mock ups on the Infinium Labs website, and was about as big as a standard PC-- just picture your home desktop laying on it's side. Yes, it even had that glowing blue Phantom logo on the front. There were no visible controller ports, however there were some USB ports in the back, along with various outputs for S-Video, Component, A/V, a few USB ports and even a FireWire connection.
The Hardware
One of the first topics in the presentation was the Phantom's hardware. It was markedly different from what is listed on their website and in their promotional video, however Rob stressed that it was a beta box and that it may upgrade before release. They listed a 1.8Ghz Pentium 4 processor, 256mb of RAM (didn't mention what type) which could be upgraded to 512 or a full gig. An 80 gigabyte "storage device"-- no further specs than that were given. Rob also mentioned the system would be using "NVidia's NV36 graphics card." All the controllers and peripherals were made by Logitech, cord connected at first but wireless if you upgrade. He also said that currently the box was running on a standard ATX motherboard, which explained the console's size. Rob said he'd like it to be smaller but that's dependent on pricing issue, of course. He then went on to say that they had but five of these prototypes, which goes in direct contrast with previous statements from Tim Roberts that they "have several hundred prototype models here in the office." Well, perhaps those were earlier (Alpha?) prototypes.
As far as specs go, that's all we got. There are lots of little details missing-- RAM type, bus speeds, etc etc... technical as they are, they really make a difference in a high performance gaming machine. Again, Rob stressed that this was a Beta version of the hardware so things were subject to change.
Basically, the hardware is presented as a fair-to-middling PC. It even runs on a "specialized" Windows XP kernel. Now remember, consoles can get by with slower processor speeds and less RAM because they have very powerful hardware configurations made solely for pushing polygons around on screen. Also, most games run at a low resolution compared to your computer monitor. When questioned, Rob stated that the console is aimed for TV use.
Next topic was protection-- keeping the user out of the Phantom's hardware and software. He very quickly listed off lots of technologies and encryptions, nothing on the software end was out of the ordinary but some of the more interesting hardware ones were "Case Intrusion Detection" and "Epoxy Encapsulation of Critical ROMs." Yes, no going inside your own hardware for you, young gamer.
This is Going to Tank (Score:3, Insightful)
Secondly, what if your area doesn't have broadband? Doesn't about 50% of the US still use modems?
And finally, no memory card, no disk drive. You want your friend to borrow your game? No problem. Give him the whole console. Want to trade save games. Same thing. There's a reason we have disk drives and memory cards, this is it.
So where does that leave our audience? I guess that means anyone who has broadband, doesn't have a good PC, and doesn't like to play console games with friends.
Any takers?
Re:"You People." (Score:4, Insightful)
By constantly saying "You people," the underlying message Perot gave was: "You and me are separate and we're going to stay that way." Compare this to Clinton's "I feel your pain" approach: It said, "I may not be black, but I understand disenfranchisement."
Back to topic, the message Infinium gave with this comment is: "We're not really by gamers for gamers as the company motto says, and we think you'll buy whatever we give you."
Re:It does not exist! (Score:3, Insightful)
From reading the articles at HardOCP it doesn't look good. (Developing in you garage is fine, supplying a false adress is at best suspicious.
And the entire thing seems like a new version of the DivX DVD-player standard.
This sounds to me like the biggest scam ever! (Score:3, Insightful)
Next we have a console that noone has ever seen.
Next we have a sales and distribution model that requires you to pay them before you get product... pay to an address that is a PO box.
Finally you have no developer interest of any kind from major players, let alone publishers. No sign of an office or hosting facility that can handle delivering applications. No sign of infrastructure to manufacture or support the box either. Sketchy always changing specifications and unreachable personnel.
It would not surprise me in the least if these guys take a bunch of orders and then just 'disappear'. I mean there is no sign that there is any plans for a business at this point.