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E3

Phantom Console May Never Materialize 253

Posted by Zonk from the going-once dept.
CNN Money's excellent column Game On is running a piece discussing the conspicuous absence of the Phantom console from this year's E3. The service-based system which was to allow download and purchase of games via a living-room unit has been the subject of dubious press coverage and general mistrust, all of which appears to have been well deserved. From the article: "The company believes, based on past performance, that there is a high likelihood that sufficient capital will not be available ... and many or all of these milestones will be missed and the launch date will again shift and/or the company will go out of business..."
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Phantom Console May Never Materialize More

Phantom Console May Never Materialize

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  • well duh... (Score:5, Funny)

    by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:30PM (#12593590) Homepage Journal

    Phantom Console May Never Materialize

    +5, Amazing Grasp of the Obvious.

  • I for one... (Score:2, Funny)

    by i64X ( 582393 )
    am totally shocked.

  • no, it'll come out (Score:5, Funny)

    by SirSlud ( 67381 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:32PM (#12593613) Homepage
    the launch titles will be Duke Nukem and Team Fortress 2

  • I can't wait... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:33PM (#12593633)
    I can't wait to see what happens when Phantom tries to sue CNN...

  • Phantom Console (Score:5, Insightful)

    by robpoe ( 578975 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:34PM (#12593646)
    Downloads games? Wow. Does it come with a free 10g fiber connection to the house?

    With the console games getting as fat as they've been (i.e. full DVD media) how in the hell do you expect people to download that much material (for one) and since it's not on a copy protected media, how would you trust that someone wouldn't just copy if off the local HD and play it for free?

    And dont tell me about subscription unlocks and stuff. If they've figured out how to mod an XBox to play pir..err..copie...err.. BACKED UP games, hacked Windows XP to not need activation, hacked DirecTV / Dish / Cable / whatever, then surely whatever "authentication scheme" they choose will be broken, too.....

    • Re:Phantom Console (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jeffmeden ( 135043 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:39PM (#12593714) Homepage Journal
      A better analogy would be the success of Valve software's Steam service. It has essentially made the buy, download, play model viable. Add a hardware scheme around it and its even more protected. Speed? so you wait a few days for the download, if it allows the user to demo the game or obtain a rare game they would otherwise have to wait for anyway, why the hex not?
      • I really didn't have to wait a few days.

        I said I wasn't going to do it, but I was rather bored and did it anyway.

        So it took four hours to download HL2 without the pre-cache files.

        Work did take a few days though... but their connection is considerably slower then my cable modem.
      • A better analogy would be the success of Valve software's Steam service. It has essentially made the buy, download, play model viable. Add a hardware scheme around it and its even more protected. Speed? so you wait a few days for the download, if it allows the user to demo the game or obtain a rare game they would otherwise have to wait for anyway, why the hex not?

        I honestly have never used it, and don't know about how secure it is, but their source code itself was stolen, correct?

      • Re:Phantom Console (Score:2, Interesting)

        by nossid ( 652717 )
        Another example of content delivery over the net is Guild Wars [guildwars.com], where you download a ~70Kb client, which in turn downloads the actual content only when it's needed for the first time or if a new version is available. So far it has worked perfectly for me, and there is no hassle with CDs or any manual involvement in the patching/updating process.
      • "Speed? so you wait a few days for the download"

        <sarcasm>
        Well, yes, because obviously I have no other use for my internet connection for _days_ than to download a game. Surely it'll be no problem take a break from downloading anything else, and for that matter from playing anything online, just to download a game.

        And it makes so much sense to download 5 GB worth of game data (I can think of a few XBox games which, yes, are a full DVD) for days, and then find I can finish the game in 10 hours. Becaus

      • Re:Phantom Console (Score:3, Insightful)

        by KillShill ( 877105 )
        a better analogy would be renting the game.

        since you never actually "own" the game, you essentially rent the game for a one time fee. they can revoke your right to use the game at their discretion at any time for any reason.

        what a wonderful model upon to base all future game publishing.

        i for one am willing to be handcuffed and ask permission to play games i ...buy..er rent.

        getting rid of the middleman (publishers) has always been a good thing... but not if you replace it with developer handcuffs. i don'
      • Not to mention a player doesn't have to download everything at once.

        It could download each level as the player needs, and even do it wisely, downloading the next level while the player is playing the current level.

        Thus it may take a week to download the entire game (depending on how much the player plays) but the end-user wouldn't notice a difference.

      • Re:Phantom Console (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Lisandro ( 799651 ) on Saturday May 21, 2005 @12:36AM (#12596835)
        Huh? No flame intended, but the only reason Steam is sucessful it's because it carried Half-Life 2 - one of the most anticipated games in history.

        What else is available through it? HL1? Assorted mods? When Steam grows a respectable games catalogue, we'll know if it's a sucess or not. Not likely to happen either, unless Valve starts publishing new games on their own - other companies are more likely to create their own Steam rather than going through Valve. That'd be nice, having to use 10 different online buying/activation programs for games...
    • Does it come with a free 10g fiber connection to the house?

      As long as they are making wild promises and not delivering, why not?

      Yeah, that's the ticket!
      Comes with free 10G fiber broadband.

      (Void where prohibited, subject to availability, may cause rectal bleeding)

    • the guys at Phantom have spent quite a bit of time thinking about those issues and well... uh... the answer they came up with was: slip the launch date some more.

  • Hard OCP's expose (Score:5, Informative)

    by PIPBoy3000 ( 619296 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:34PM (#12593653)
    HardOCP did a great expose [hardocp.com] on this company.

    Of course, they then sued HardOCP [gamespot.com] and were generally nasty, so I'm pretty happy about the way this all turned out.

  • This just in!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by getusout ( 827221 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:35PM (#12593659)
    In other news, Daikatana 2 may not materialize...
  • From the "Gentlemen-faces-on-stun" department.

  • So? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:38PM (#12593698)
    Even if it did come out, what were its chances of competing against the PS3, Xbox360, and Nintendo Revolultion?

  • In other news... (Score:5, Funny)

    by null etc. ( 524767 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:38PM (#12593701)
    Infinium Labs has announce the "Phantom 2", code-named "Ephemeral".

  • Junk faxing for stock (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rigorist ( 176416 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:39PM (#12593705) Homepage
    Infinium Labs had to engage in illegal junk-faxing for a pump 'n' dump stock scheme earlier this year.

    If the company is that far down the tubes, there's not much hope of it ever producing a product.

  • Whuh? (Score:5, Funny)

    by eno2001 ( 527078 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:39PM (#12593708) Homepage Journal
    Neo: I just got this strange feeling of deja vu.

    Trinity: A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.

    Me: Uh... guys. The only thing they're changing again is their mailing address for corporate headquarters. Which is probably a public restroom in downtown Phoenix this time around.

  • it's been doomed since day one (Score:3, Informative)

    by Scruffeh ( 867141 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:40PM (#12593715)
    Their CEO has a very very long history of failed buisness ventures. Hard OCP reported this over 2 years ago and then Infinium tried to sue them.

    No surprise at all really. It's one of the biggest example of vapourware ever....

    Here's the HardOCP article which they got sued for. Loads of dodgy looking stuff here:

    http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTEyLDI= [hardocp.com]

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/02/20/infinium_l abs_gets_litigious/ [theregister.co.uk]
    • Honestly, there's nothing wrong with failing at a legitimate business venture. The problem with this isn't failure, it's that it was never a legitimate business venture. They had no product, no titles, no plan, just a wittle tiny office space and lots of time and energy devoted to raising funds and defrauding investors. This has been clear from the first moment I read anything about these guys.

  • And... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Momoru ( 837801 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:41PM (#12593729) Homepage Journal
    ...their stock [yahoo.com] is up 4% (1 shiny penny).
  • Who the hell names a pre-release console Phantom, anyway? It's like naming your new software product VapourWare.

  • great... (Score:3, Funny)

    by oh_the_humanity ( 883420 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:42PM (#12593741)
    Now what am i going to do with 100,000 shares of infiniumlabs ?
  • Sky is blue!
    MS Office sucks. ...
    Slow news day or what?
  • Last I heard it is supposed to launch in November of this year.

    It was also supposed to debut at the Microsoft Mobile & Embedded DevCon 2005. Was anyone there? Was there any media coverage?

    and finally.. and interview with the president of infinium labs... he discusses the launch date and the development milestones: http://www.tradersnation.com/iflb.shtml [tradersnation.com]
  • I mean, they called it the Phantom, for Pete's sake. Are they that arrogant?! Because if i was a [n incredibly stupid] venture capitalist that fell for this one, i'd want their asses but quick.
  • I know the Phantom was a pure investment scam. But how hard would it have been to actually make a product for sale?!

    It's a PC, connected to a TV, with a server on the internet from which you can download games. If some company in China had come up with the idea, it'd have taken them a week to release a product.
  • when we had the HardOCP article last year.
  • For Immediate Release
    CONTACT:
    Timothy Roberts
    Infinium Labs
    www.phantom.net


    SOMEWHERE,NIGERIA,5/20/2005

    We might be going out of business like there is no tomorrow...But we sure made a killing on the market!

    Why my stock went all the way up to $1.00 a share and we made millions off of those stupid stock traders.

    With all our newfound money that we swindled from the market, we'll just probably go startup another company to steal money from people...I hear Nigeria is a good place to do stuff like this.
    • Hi. My Name is Timothy Roberts, President of the esteemed company Infinium Labs, in the United States of America, under glory of God. We are a company highly successful with video games. Unfortunately our name has been tarnished by the infad^H^H^H^H^Heditors of online magazines. The effect of these words were to promote our bankers to halt the access to our accounts. Through our business dealings I aforementioned we had secured FIVE MILLION DOLLARS ($5000000, or 60000 camels^H^H^H^H^H^Hschoolchildr
    • Gah. I really don't understand why I got modded as a troll. Maybe the person that modded me is related to Tim in some way?

      Timothy Roberts is a con artist, plain and simple. The only difference between him and the folks in Nigeria is he succeeded where others has failed. I like how the cops in Nigeria deal with con artist. When they find one, they just blow them away right there.

      I feel sorry for anyone that bought IFLB.OB shares thinking it was gonna hit $1.00...$2.00...or more and watch it sink back down

  • Obvious Comment Checklist (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cr0w T. Trollbot ( 848674 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @04:48PM (#12593801)
    Let's see which of the obvious comments have been made:

    • Reference to it running Duke Nukem Forever: Check
    • Obvious Pun on Platform Name: Check.
    • Reference to Original Hard OPC Article: Check.
    • Link to Penny Arcade strip on Phantom:....?
    Woo-hoo! A chance to Karma Whore! [penny-arcade.com]

    Take two! They're small! [penny-arcade.com]

    And another! [penny-arcade.com]

    And still another! [penny-arcade.com]

    Crow T. Trollbot
  • Perhaps is it because the Phantom is platform for Duke Nukem Forever?
  • Well, they only have about a year to get it going, before Nintendo does it first with the Revolution.
  • Maybe they learned something from history.

    Anyone remember the Sega Channel [sega-16.com]?

  • Talk About Freaking Shady (Score:5, Funny)

    by ultimabaka ( 864222 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @05:01PM (#12593919)
    From the Infinium Labs website [phantom.net]:

    Phantom(TM) Game Receiver

    * AMD® Athlon(TM) XP 2500+ central processing unit (CPU)
    * NVIDIA® GeForce(TM) FX 5700 Ultra graphics processing unit (GPU)
    * NVIDIA nForce(TM)2 Ultra 400 platform processor
    * 256 MB RAM
    * 40 GB local content cache
    * Microsoft Windows XP® Embedded Operating System
    * Dynamic, personalized user interfaces customizable for age, gender or technical expertise
    * Lapboard, mouse and game pad included

    * HDTV and Dolby® Digital 5.1 compatible
    * Works with any consumer-standard broadband Internet Service Provider (ISP): DSL or faster

    You mean to tell me they've spent millions of dollars trying to build a normal computer, and FAILING??? What kind of real stupidity is going on here?
  • You gotta love this stuff.

    From Infinium's Investor relations [phantom.net] section; Under SEC filings, reads the following words:

    You can browse SEC filings in Edgar by clicking here. Note that you will be redirected to an external website. We cannot guarantee the accuracy and timeliness of any information therein.
    READ: Whatever the SEC says, it just isn't true!

    Also, the Infinium Labs stock [phantom.net] closed today at $0.13 a share after an increase of five one-thousanth of a cent.

    Now who wants to buy this red-hot t

  • Woo! (Score:2)

    by digitac ( 24581 )
    This means the "I Believe/Phantom" T-shirt I got at E3 last year will be worth more on E-Bay, right? ::Digitac

  • Nintendo Revolution (Score:5, Insightful)

    by aardwolf64 ( 160070 ) on Friday May 20, 2005 @05:39PM (#12594309) Homepage
    Is it any wonder that Phantom disappeared, given what Nintendo is doing with Revolution [ign.com]?

    From the linked page:
    "Perhaps most surprising, the Revolution will give players access to Nintendo's back catalog of games. That's right: you'll be able to download classic titles for the Nintendo 64, Super NES, and original NES systems -- in addition to playing your library of GameCube titles."
  • "The company believes, based on past performance, that there is a high likelihood that sufficient capital will not be available ... and many or all of these milestones will be missed and the launch date will again shift and/or the company will go out of business..."

    We haven't been able to scam anymore money from people because they are finally starting to realize we are not legit. Time to move on to our next scam.
  • ...with my $50 phantom online gift certificate? those bastards!!
  • Well, at least the Phantom story is a marker, showing how credible are those who reported on it as real. In our age of stenographer journalism, that kind of info is very valuable.

    If only the gaming press covered Washington DC, we might get a sense of the truth there, by subtracting the lies. Talk about disappearing phantoms...

  • hmmm (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nomadic ( 141991 ) <nomadicworld AT gmail DOT com> on Friday May 20, 2005 @06:01PM (#12594485) Homepage
    You know, I kind of wish it did come out and was just a phenomenal platform, just to see slashdotters' response. Though the people who trashed the Xbox didn't really say much after it came out and turned to be a decent system...

    Yes, I know this is different, yes I'm aware that Infinium is a very dodgy company and the chances of a working living breathing console coming from them are very very remote.

    BUT. In SEC filings companies are required by law to give worst-case scenarios for their business. The original article was somewhat dishonest in portraying this as anything major regarding the Phantom. It doesn't matter how successful the company, if they're registering with the SEC they will have to say things that can go wrong.
    • You know, I kind of wish it did come out and was just a phenomenal platform, just to see slashdotters' response.

      It's not that we don't want a Phantom console, it's just that I have this deed to the Brooklyn Bridge, and I'm strapped for cash, so I'm willing to let it go for cheap if you can pay cash right now...

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