Game Industry Executive Shuffle

Next Generation reports that Sales and Marketing Director for Nintendo of Europe Jim Merrick has officially moved on from the company. Meanwhile, Greg Koler has been cemented as the CEO for Infinium Labs, the "maker" of the Phantom console. Koler has been serving as interim CEO of the company since Bachus quit last November. From the Koler article: "The Phantom Game Service has an unparalleled legacy of boldness, innovation and great opportunities for the online video games market sector ... Together we look forward to joining our strengths in engineering and technology with a sales and marketing driven presence to deliver the most advanced online video game service and devices for consumers."

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:the end

[ZephyrXero]

Seriously... when is Infinium gonna just give it up on the whole Phantom thing? It was cute for a while...but it's not even funny anymore. It really wasn't that bad an idea but perhaps actually releasing something would have been a better one ;P

Speaking of strategically placed quotation marks.

[Phariom]

Meanwhile, Greg Koler has been cemented as the CEO for Infinium Labs, the "maker" of the Phantom console.

This sentence should have read:

Meanwhile, Greg Koler has been cemented as the "CEO" for "Infinium Labs," the "maker" of the Phantom console.

The problem with Infinium is the attitude

[Stormwatch]

Infinium is too lawsuit-happy. Hey, guys, no one likes bullies! To sell your product, you must gain the trust of consumers. A nice start would be not using legal tactics in an unethical attempt to silence the people who investigate you and reveal what a complete scam you really are. Then people will trust you! ...oh, wait.

Re:The problem with Infinium is the attitude

[ZephyrXero]

The idea was pretty simple... build a console with off the shelf PC parts (much like the Xbox) and then offer games through a download store...Why it's taken them this many years and still not have a mahcine for sale is beyond me.

Perhaps if someone came up with a little more open version of it, that ran Linux and let people create homebrews and sell them cheaply through the service it could actually do pretty well?

Re:The problem with Infinium is the attitude

[Stone Rhino]

Perhaps if someone came up with a little more open version of it, that ran Linux and let people create homebrews and sell them cheaply through the service it could actually do pretty well?

Someone did. [howstuffworks.com] It failed. [alllinuxdevices.com]

Re:The problem with Infinium is the attitude

[ZephyrXero]

As I recall it was never even released...so we don't know if it would have really failed or not. And also, I don't believe the indrema had a digital distribution service either ;)

Re:The problem with Infinium is the attitude

[ArwynH]

What product? They don't have a product only a vague idea of one.

No product to sell, thus no need for consumer trust.

No need for consumer trust? Running out of investment? Blame someone else and sue them! It's not thier fault they never bothered to develop the product they said they were developing after all is it?

FFS

[GrumblyStuff]

Why does Infinium Labs and the Phantom even get mentioned? Hell, even the Virtual Boy is less of a joke.

Imagine

[mwvdlee]

Imagine if you will, the year 2013, when, against all hope, the Phantom will finally be released to the public.

Does anybody even WANT to buy one of those machines???

In every aspect, the machine is like a low-spec PC with TV-Out and a software-based subscription service which would pail in comparison to Steam.

I don't even care whether it's real or not, it'll never see the light of day simply because nobody would remove them from their cardbord boxes.

Interchangable CEOs

[British]

And what does changing of the CEOs have any effect on the Phantom release? Nothing. The changing of the non-guard.

A year from now they will have some guy with severe brain damage as the CEO. When he will do interviews with gaming magazines, he'll just drool and respond with "muuuuauhahthppttt", and it would provide no more concrete information on the release date than previous CEOs.

I know I'm going to burn in hell for that comment.