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Games Entertainment

Infinium Labs to Miss Release Date 43

Posted by Zonk from the what-is-the-color-of-shocked-anyway? dept.
Saist (and several others) writes "WhereisPhantom.com is reporting that Infinium Labs will not release the Phantom until 2005. " While this doesn't appear to widely reported or verified yet, coming as it does on the heels of recent news it's not hard to imagine that this is true.
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Infinium Labs to Miss Release Date More

Infinium Labs to Miss Release Date

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  • Not Surprising (Score:5, Informative)

    by alatesystems ( 51331 ) <chris@[ ]isbenard.net ['chr' in gap]> on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @03:06PM (#10312229) Homepage Journal
    This "company" sucks. I hope they get prosecuted into the ground.

    In case that gets slashdotted like it did last week:
    Coral Cache [nyud.net](yes, i already loaded it through coral so it should be in the coral cache)

    Mirror 1 [captainn.net]

    Mirror 1 [captainn.net]

    Chris

  • Because they have to acquire launch titles. (Score:5, Funny)

    by angryflute ( 206793 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @03:10PM (#10312264) Homepage
    The first one they have in the works for The Phantom is Duke Nuk'em Forever.
    • I think I have posted the fact that this vaporware console has been in the making since early 90s. This phantom box was in development back when NEO GEO was popular. Actually I still have an old magazine listing the game port dates. I can't wait.

      - 2005 - Pong

      - 2006 - Pac Man

      - 2007 - Asteroid

      - 2050 - Duke Nukem

  • I don't get it (Score:4, Funny)

    by Frac ( 27516 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @03:11PM (#10312284)
    How do you miss the release date of "NEHVAH!!!"

    I did hear they're waiting for the Duke Nukem Forever port, so that could be the problem.
  • For some reason, whenever someone offers to sell their site to the people who might not like it, I start to question their neutrality. It's a good thing that CBS and Fox don't work that way. Er, they don't, do they?

    • Re:Strange editorial (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Ayaress ( 662020 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @05:21PM (#10313660) Journal
      I don't know. Most of what they have, you can see elsewhere first. But Infinium only knows the language of money. They didn't like HardOCP talking about them, they sued them. HardOCP didn't back down, and they won.

      They don't like Penny-Arcade ripping on them, so they basically say, "They really love us, it's just a sort of hazing ritual they put the new guys in the industry through." Of course, they never said Bill Gates performed freakish acts of carnal violence, they just made a few jokes about how big it and its controller was. I think there's a long way between an eight hundred pound grizzley bear and a dead dog.

      Infinium just can't turn off the hype/fud/doubletalk for ten seconds and make a serious effort to tell gamers what they're doing. Even Microsoft turned off the spin machine regularly and honestly laid it out: Here's our system, here's what it does, and here's the games you'll be able to get for it when it comes out.

      We've gotten all hype and no substance on what the Phantom really does that makes it different than my PC can already do, and they have not one developer willing to admit that their game will be in the Phantom lineup.

      Instead of pulling it out and telling us straight up (Jesus, I hope that doesn't sound as dirty to you as it does to me) what their deal really is, they attack or belittle everybody who attack them.

      Infinium won't play by the rules, so this guy basically just said he'll play by theirs instead (and in the process makes a bit of an attack on their ethics). "You want me to go away, fine. You've got a bunch of investory money, you're not behind on the payments for the shiny cars that money bought you, and I'm not proud. Let's get with the checkbook."

      I'm not saying its not a bit unethcial, but hell, if somebody put $100,000 on the table in front of me, I don't think my ethics would mean jack shit when they finished talking.

      • Actually (Score:3, Informative)

        by Recoil_42 ( 665710 )
        The "Timothy Roberts can't orgasm unless he kills a dog" comic came AFTER they sued HardOCP -- Penny-Arcade was purposely trying to piss Infinium off with that one.

        All the comics before then were more or less harmless, the same kind of stuff that PA pulled on Microsoft.

  • Interesting.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ivan256 ( 17499 ) * on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @03:29PM (#10312506)
    2005, eh? Do they have advance knowledge of when hell is going to freeze over?

    Really, only one in ten startups succeed... And those are ordinary startups, not one that are trying to compete against Microsoft and have a CEO with a history of fraud.

    • Re:Interesting.... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 )
      it just depends on how you define 'success'.

      so far it has brought a gazillion bucks to the ceo, I'd consider that a massive success.

      -

  • Huuricanes (Score:3, Insightful)

    by evil crash ( 739354 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @03:43PM (#10312669) Journal
    Shoulda blamed the delay on hurricane Ivan....

  • Yeesh (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Otter ( 3800 )
    How little of a life do you have to have to run an anti-Phantom site?

  • Bad timing... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by polyp2000 ( 444682 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @04:26PM (#10313101) Homepage Journal
    If they really are banking on bringing out this thing out in november 2005 I cannot imagine worse timing. With PStwo being released, and other stuff Nintendo DS & PSP release dates growing ever closer. The Phantom is technologically dated before it has even been released. No-one is going to fork out for what is nothing more than a glorified X-Box/PC with Next gen eg PS3 consoles on the Horizon. And what about launch titles?

    So Im predicting this is going to be a flop before it has even been release. (Unless they suddenly pull some magic cards out of the pack, I just dont think consumers are going to buy into a unheard of newcomer on the market so soon after christmas)

    Nick ...

    • Re:Bad timing... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Ayaress ( 662020 )
      I wouldn't consider the PStwo an real problem for the Phantom, since it's basically the same thing as the existing Playstation 2, just smaller and cooler looking. The DS and PSP are both handhelds, and won't be competing directly with the Phantom.

      The main thing the Phantom has going against it right now is that it's got a dubious business plan, questionable managers, no end product that I couldn't turn my PC into with a dremel tool and some talent, and a two year history of making asses of themselves.

      They
    • I only really skimmed the thing, but I think it said the new target date is actually March 2005. The only system being released near the same time is the PSP.

      But it sure would be great to have the launch date pushed back more, just so we have that much more time to make fun of it.
    • The farther ahead the release date, the longer they can milk the project without admitting it was a fraud... Maybe even long enough to slip away to South America, if they are smart.

    • (Unless they suddenly pull some magic cards out of the pack, I just dont think consumers are going to buy into a unheard of newcomer on the market so soon after christmas)

      Somehow I don't think a Prodigal Sorceror and Unholy Strength are going to help these dudes out very much...
    • The crazy thing is is that it doesn't even looked like a glorified PC -- more like a stripped and locked down PC that probably won't even be able to play current A-list games effectively (check out HardOCP's recent hardware analysis), let alone A-list games a couple of years into its life cycle. The *only* possible way I can see something like this succeeding is if they can get it in hotel rooms or something like that.
    • So Im predicting this is going to be a flop before it has even been release.

      That's an easy prediction since there doesn't appear to be anything to buy anyways. It's an automatic flop.

  • Easily Confirmed (Apparently) (Score:5, Interesting)

    by roderick ( 154525 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @05:15PM (#10313609) Homepage
    Not that WIP's continuing work isn't appreciated.

    The most telling indicator that this is true is that none of the major retailers will let you pre-order a Phantom through their site. Sony only confirmed the new PStwo today and you can already pre-order one on EBgames.com. However, neither they nor GameStop, Amazon, Best Buy, nor any other site I can find will let you pre-order the Phantom, officially coming out well within the pre-order window of most games & consoles. If the stores don't think it's going to happen, it's not going to happen.

  • It's a classic "legal scam" (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @05:46PM (#10313907)
    This has been done before. You start a company with a more or less reasonable business plan requiring millions of start-up capital. You get people on board with the cash. You go public to get even more cash and then you eventually burn up the start-up capital, claim you need millions more to continue, either you get more cash or you then close up shop. The founders/majority shareholders get out of it with a nice big profit.

    All the while in order to stay within the boundaries of a legit business so you can't get prosecuted, you DO spend some money on some product development... Just not at the levels you SHOULD be if you fully intended to bring the company into full fruition.

    Another strategy for the prime founder(s) is to make yourself such a pain in the ass that the other share-holders buy you out (again, at a huge profit). Wouldn't surprise me if you eventually hear that Bachus buys out Roberts.

    By then of course the company is a bleeding shell with no hope of recovery and the original founder is living large.

  • where is the money going? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by spir0 ( 319821 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @06:07PM (#10314099) Homepage Journal
    Andre laMothe has managed to not spout shit endlessly and has produced a fantastic system called the xGameStation [xgamestation.com]. it's aimed at a sligtly different market, sure, but he has managed to make a fantastic idea a reality, all without wasting billions of dollars.
    • You're slightly correct. Andre laMothe does spout shit endlessly, but he has produced an interesting system called the xGameStation. It's aimed at an entirely different market. The phantom is for idiots who can't make games work on their PC. (Actually, it looks like it's for the CEO, to make money, but forget that.) The xGameStation is for people who want to practice game programming. The two systems could not be more different if you put one in a white box and the other in a black one.
  • The Phantom [sfgate.com] is innocent, I tell you! Some villain has framed the Phantom [rockabilly.nl] - I don't know who it was, but once he's free, the Phantom [mindspring.com] won't rest until he has uncovered the devious plot and cleared his name. You must release the Phantom [warnerbros.com]!

  • You know what the sad part of all this is? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by WarlockD ( 623872 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @06:45PM (#10314416)

    It IS a viable concept. Look at Stream? It took me a matter of moments to download an run Counter-Strike. Even if the system isn't perfect, its still a proof of concept

    After seeing the "prototype [hardocp.com]" that HardCOOP got. It took a YEAR to develop that? They didn't even have any software for it!

    It would of taking less than 3 weeks to get the prototype plastic box and case, as well as being under a $10,000 development hardware budget.

    Six months is NOT enough. While it might be a simple matter of getting the spec's of the system up, the software is going to be the issue. I also doubt they will even come out.

  • OT (Score:1)

    by Wtcher ( 312395 )
    Now if only The Phantom Menace got delayed...

  • Not surprising (Score:3, Funny)

    by shoptroll ( 544006 ) on Tuesday September 21, 2004 @07:59PM (#10314928)
    Not surprised. /me waits to see Penny-Arcade on friday roasting them over a suculent flame of spite

  • Hmmm... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Axem ( 713217 )
    At this rate the release date will be pushed past the apocalypse. So when you see the four elephants of the apocalypse ride, you know we're... maybe... less than halfway there.
  • This isn't the first time they've missed a release date - Phantom at one point had a release date of mid-to-late March, 2004.

    At that time I don't think anybody had seen a prototype. If a prototype even existed, Infinium had probably misplaced it somewhere among the flim-flam and deceit.
    • The release date was in March 2004 as of April 2004, according to their website. I remember seeing the release date listed all over the site, but it was over a month late...
  • In a side note Infinium, just annouced that using there new "transparent" technology on the Phantom, they will be fully combatible with all video game platforms ever produced, and the technology that they are using will make it compatible with everything released or planned over the next 2 to 3 years. Related news: The President of Infinium just claimed to have walked on water, and the CEO parted the Red Sea. No word on the miracles that the Head QA guy is planning, although stigmata looks to be in the ca

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