Phantom Gets Insider Bonus, Ex-Xbox Bigshot 39
Thanks to loonyboi for pointing to a HeraldTribune.com article revealing new controversy and a surprising senior appointment for Phantom 'PC game console' makers Infinium. The article reveals: "Infinium Labs Inc. dished out a stealthy stock dividend to insiders as soon as it became a publicly traded company, and without bothering to tell the stock-trading public through traditional channels." Infinium executives "declined... to be interviewed about the four-for-one dividend", but it's also noted, by way of an SEC filing, that "...Infinium has hired Kevin Bachus, who helped Microsoft develop its XBox gaming system... Bachus, with nearly 20 years of experience in the game development industry, has assumed the role of president and chief operating officer."
Non-compete (Score:2, Interesting)
Who Cares? (Score:3, Interesting)
Phantom comes out and really DOES have just about every game you could play on your COMPUTER. So what? They certainly are not going to have really good "Only on Phantom" custom games, nor be able to play the games from any other current console. The price cannot be below $299 as I am certain that infinium labs cannot lose money on each system, so for the price of roughly both the Xbox and the PS2 and possibly even the Gamecube, one can get a Phantom.
The biggest question everyone should be asking, is WHO is going to buy this system and WHY?
3DO revisited? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm much more jaded nowadays when companies promise to release "the next big thing" without showing hardware sitting on a table hooked to a monitor. Any company can make rendered pictures of hardware, blowmold prototypes, and hire top name executives. What matters is hardware and software. Show me the Phantom running on a table... let me download some games to it and play them. Until then you can blow press releases out of your ass. You won't impress me; I've seen that act before.
They were at CES this year. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Who Cares? (Score:2, Interesting)
I can no longer remember where I read this, but months ago someone went to a Phantom conference or something. The author of the article stood up near the end and asked the following:
"I already have the 3 major consoles and a gaming PC. Why should I buy a Phantom?"
Their response: "You are not our target audience"
So basically their scope is limited to people who haven't touched a gaming system in 2 years, suddenly became (re)interested, and chooses them over their other 4 options despite the (probable) price increase and the (definate) worse game selection. Maybe the 1-2 people who get worked up over downloadable content.
Re:Don't know if this has been posted before... (Score:3, Interesting)
Will The Public Accept No Media. (Score:2, Interesting)
What's the advatnge to the customer to have to download media over broad band. Seriously unless the games are 50% the price of their physical media counterparts I'm not interested.