Infinium Phantom Gets Positive, Negative Spin 33
aanand writes "Kevin Bacchus, Infinium's PR man and the brains behind the launch of the Xbox, has given a revealing interview with State in which he attempts to lay to rest once and for all the doubts about the Phantom's viability and, indeed, existence. The man himself: 'I built a game console. I know what it takes to do that. It wasn't until I met with the founders of the company as they were interested with bringing me on board that I realised that it was a lot less audacious than it seems on the surface.'" Infinium has also recently announced that they "will be shipping Java technology on its Phantom game receiver when it launches this fall", but with Xbox Live Arcade seeming to duplicate at least some of Phantom's "advanced gaming on demand system" functionality, and muck-raking sites such as 'Where Is Phantom?', billed as "The site for all [Infinium] Critics, Cynics, Detractors and Doubters", nipping at its heels, the company may have its PR work cut out for it.
blaa blaa (Score:5, Interesting)
it's making it a success and making the thing actually fly off the ground and be financially viable that's the problem.. and of course the software to go with the thing but that again isn't the major problem.
besides.. in the interview they say their target is the 'casual gamer'.. how the hell are they going to reach a casual gamer with a system like this? why would a casual gamer shell out money monthly when he could just buy some gamecube and be over it?
and in addition to that they've been buffing it up for so damn long already without delivering a single thing!
of course, they could add a porn channel to the thing and make it a hit!
The Producers? Maybe Not... (Score:3, Interesting)
The underlying problem is the reliance on PC games for content. Those games were not made with this kind of use in mind which leaves lots of room for trouble. The other problem is that the market they claim to be aiming for, probably doesn't have broadband. Casual gamers can use the current generation of consoles without too much trouble or additional expense. I just don't see that with the Phantom. Why should a casual gamer bother with Phantom?
As always, I reserve the right to be utterly and completely wrong! In any case this should be interesting to watch. Hopefully Phantom doesn't turn out to be something akin to "The Producers".
How can it not fail? (Score:5, Interesting)
Their software delivery route is a method that another of the players, Nintendo, don't see fit to even seriously bother with as an accessory. It's certainly a massive restriction, especially coupled with the various caps and sliding bandwidth charges that are starting to be introduced as takeup improves.
You can't commoditize the PC gaming market, that goes against the basic principles and the reasons for its existence in the first place.
I can't see a good time for them to release this product. The upcoming holiday season is already very full from promises of the PSP, DS and various AAA franchises and sequels from all the major players. There is simply no room for a fourth player.
I'm not sure how much having a standardised platform will affect PC titles either. Will this kit be good enough for new titles such as Half Life 2 and Doom 3? Will it lead to a depression in complex graphics encoding? Will it kill FMV interludes, texture qualities?
I'm not convinced. (Score:4, Interesting)
Incidentally, I seem to remember there being some big news about how the Phantom would be at E3. I don't think I've heard anything of it since. I didn't see anything in my most recent EGM; I believe Slashdot hasn't had a story about said E3 appearance. Has anybody seen any article about the Phantom showing at E3?
At least.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Last year, when I saw simmilar data, they had a development budget of 0. Now, they actually have development expenses of $259,407.
On the other hand, they spent $320,000 on litigation.
Re:I'm not convinced. (Score:2, Interesting)
They were demoing a few games, but beyond puzzle-type games the only thing I saw mildly interesting was UT2K4 (or maybe 2K3, unsure), which, of course, I'd rather play on a PC. They also had this keyboard+mouse stylized controller which looked ok, but as far as I could tell, was not wireless.
It's a pretty big mystery to me who they think their target audience is. Not moi, for sure. At least I got a free T-Shirt that has the Phantom logo and says "I believe". I'm guessing it'll be good for a few laughs in a couple years.