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PC Games (Games)

The Phantom...Lives? 82

Posted by Zonk from the i-could-have-done-that-with-flash dept.
An Anonymous Reader writes "G4's Attack of the show has a writeup and video of a demonstration of the Phantom Gaming Service." From the article: "I certainly wouldn't be at this company doing what I'm doing if I wasn't absolutely sure that we're going to launch a product. It's natural for people to be skeptical. I think a lot of the skepticism is building on itself at this point: people are skeptical so therefore they become more skeptical and therefore they become more skeptical."
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The Phantom...Lives? More

The Phantom...Lives?

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  • Reasons for skepticism (Score:4, Interesting)

    by yotto ( 590067 ) on Thursday June 09, 2005 @12:03PM (#12769809) Homepage
    I'm not skeptical to be skeptical. I'm skeptical because this console was announced, what, 5 years ago? More?

    Don't get me wrong, if it comes out and kicks ass I'll be all over it, but until I see a working machine I can fiddle with at the game store I'll place your console in the file folder with Duke Nukem Forever.
    • Sometimes skepticism is based on Ignorance.

      The product was announced less than two years ago, not five years ago.

    • Haven't you heard? Duke is going to be the Photon's shipping game, the hardware is ready they are just waiting on the game ;)
    • I'm skeptical because this console was announced, what, 5 years ago? More?

      In 1992, after the release of Windows 3.1 and NT 3.1, Microsoft announced plans for a project codenamed "Cairo" to unify the regular and NT product lines. Cairo in the form of NT 5 finally came out in 2000. The unification of the lines only arrived with Windows XP, released in 2001. Compared to that timeline, 5 years isn't that much, especially not for a hardware project by a small company.

      People in the OSS world are used to seeing
      • *Isn't that the same folder that Half-Life 2 was
        in?        *

        Actually, yes. Some times things are announced, sit for half a decade, and then come to fruition. That doesn't mean anything though because far more often they do not.
        • Why would that include HL2? It was officially announced a little over a year before it was released (sure they missed their release date but it's nothing like DN4)

          Now team fort 2 is a different story...
      • phantom is legimate... ...if you consider not delivering legimate, dozen total revamps of the product, specs pulled out of ass etc.

        look, people are skeptical about it being a good product EVEN IF IT MAKES IT TO THE MARKET! they've already had dozen dates/timelines they haven't met.

        it doesn't take time to build a pc clone(however, a launch of the size that they were planning would have taken a shitload more of money than they had/have).

        people were skeptical of the end of summer of 2003 release of hl2 - an

  • The Phantom Menace (Score:3, Funny)

    by CDWalton ( 662027 ) on Thursday June 09, 2005 @12:09PM (#12769878) Homepage
    Sorry, couldn't help it...

  • I thought (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dark Paladin ( 116525 ) * <jhummel.johnhummel@net> on Thursday June 09, 2005 @12:09PM (#12769880) Homepage
    We were skeptical because we've been promised the moon, the sun and the stars for years, without delivery. Or perhaps because the main office were found to be a PO Box (or an empty office - I can't remember). Because every year there's some hardware, some sort of demo, but nothing real and tangible.

    We're skeptical because many of us are empiricists who don't believe in empty promises anymore, but real results. Show us a machine, we can buy, and a real list of games that work, and we'll take a look at it. Until you actually say "On sale on [insert date here]", just shut up - we'll be a lot less skeptical that way.

    • Re:I thought (Score:3, Informative)

      by Ayaress ( 662020 )
      It was an empty office. A PO box wouldn't be all that unusual. A lot of businesses use PO boxes rather than post their address online. There are a lot of reasons, but they all come down to keeping people from snooping around, which is exactly what HardOCP did.
      • This is almost totally untrue. Any legitimate company beyond a certain size will have a physical presence (an office, if you will), which is publically posted and available. A lot of very small, one or two man operations run out of someones living room will use a PO Box so that they can pretend to be a large, reliable company you'd feel more comfortable giving your money too. It's not neccesarily bad if Infineon is/was one of those, but there's nothing wrong with exposing it, either, especially when they pu
    • >Until you actually say "On sale on [insert date here]", just shut up - we'll be a lot less skeptical that way. I do believe that is what he is doing, shutting up about another date. He mentioned early in the article the mistake of promising too much. I think if they announce a date again at this point, it is all but on the shelf. I'm actually interested in this product, completely depending on pricing options and what you get of course, but I'll be very interested in that announcement. He's right,

  • A physical breakthrough (Score:4, Funny)

    by Max_Wells_SH ( 863873 ) on Thursday June 09, 2005 @12:15PM (#12769944)
    At least they managed to create a perpetual skepticism machine!

  • Drinking the Kool-aid (Score:4, Insightful)

    by lazuli42 ( 219080 ) on Thursday June 09, 2005 @12:16PM (#12769970) Homepage Journal
    "I certainly wouldn't be at this company doing what I'm doing if I wasn't absolutely sure that we're going to launch a product."

    If you're still working for the company, obviously you're waiting for the payoff. Having this type of confidence in your employers doesn't translate into real-world guarantees that the business is going to launch the product.

    This is modern American workplace's version of Stockholm Syndrome. Good luck, kiddo.
  • ..that the reason is I'm skeptical is just because, well, people are skeptical about it. I thought I was skeptical because I read HardOCP's writeup about what they'll have to do to even break even, and it didn't seem in the least bit likely to me.

  • A myth of epic proportions (Score:4, Interesting)

    by theantipop ( 803016 ) on Thursday June 09, 2005 @12:18PM (#12769989)
    It's articles like this that support the belief that the Phantom is real. Seriously though, when every company employee is merely treading water everytime they talk about the console, coupled with the fact that in it's current proposed specs its nowhere near competitive with next gen consoles you can't honestly expect them to finish the product. I mean when you have to spout bull like
    last year we not only had Christmas but also a presidential election. So getting billboards and getting television ad space was very difficult to do last year
    Please, for the sake of all those poor engineers who got suckered into working on this, just let the Phantom die in peace.
  • Did anyone else actually watch the video? I think this is a great idea. The pricing model seems right too... he wants to go the "cable tv" route, where you pay a monthly fee with a contract and get the hardware for free, or the "satellite radio" route where you pay a little for the hardware, and don't have to bind yourself with a yearly contract.

    Either way, this is a great idea. It obviously plays PC games (as I understand it). I currently run two linux machines, no dual booting or anything, and the
    • Did anyone else actually watch the video? I think this is a great idea. The pricing model seems right too... he wants to go the "cable tv" route, where you pay a monthly fee with a contract and get the hardware for free, or the "satellite radio" route where you pay a little for the hardware, and don't have to bind yourself with a yearly contract.

      And when you participate in this scheme, what exactly do you own? Do you own any of the games you download? Do you own the box? If you stop paying Infinium mon
      • These are some of the biggest concerns which IL still hasn't addressed. To you, it may look fine. To everyone else, it looks like a more strict version of Steam with an extra box you have to buy, too.

        Yes but with Steam the games are still way expensive. If games are free with a subscription, it wouldn't matter if your games went when you stopped paying money. It would be like television, though you might have premium content or pay bands based on usage. But of course noone in their right mind should pay $

      • Re:What kind of glasses are you wearing? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by DJayC ( 595440 ) * on Thursday June 09, 2005 @02:20PM (#12771731)
        And when you participate in this scheme, what exactly do you own?

        I don't know.. what do you own when you purchase a satellite radio receiver? You listen to the songs they decided to play, and you trust that they stay true to offering the best music for whatever channel you listen to. If the Phantom Network treats me as good as Sirius, I don't feel bad about not owning the content. I'm paying a service fee for premium, easily accessible content.

        There are very few games I will play after the initial release.. I could care less if I own GTA6 after I beat it.. and it's perfect for sports games.. I don't have to blow 50 bucks a year for each title.. I can play it, when the new one comes out, I play that one.

        If you care about owning that kind of media, I can see where you are coming from. I wouldn't use this type of service for music or movies, but when it comes to games, honestly, I would rather pay for a subscription based service, and I think there are other casual gamers out there that feel the same way.

        Your argument isn't original.. it's been brought in every thread about any type of subscription based service. All I was saying is that if this thing works out, you can count me in. $9.00 a game so I can play it for a couple months is much cheaper than $50.

        For those who care, go spend $450 on your next-gen console, and $50 bucks a game.. but I'm tired of my game and console graveyard building up and wasting space. Next stop, eBay!
        • For those who care, go spend $450 on your next-gen console, and $50 bucks a game.. but I'm tired of my game and console graveyard building up and wasting space. Next stop, eBay!

          They're only wasting space if you don't play them any more. Arguably, if you don't own the games, you won't even have the option of playing old games if Infinium goes under. For me, that's a no-no.

          However, it's true that a subscription plan would work great for certain kinds of gamers, e.g. folks who don't want to be playing old

        • I don't have to blow 50 bucks a year for each title

          That's correct. You instead get to blow $20 a month or whatever it works out to. But you own nothing at all in the end.
          You mention it's like Satellite. Well, no, not really. A satellite company has a firm footing and when you subscribe you can be pretty sure it's going to still be in business in a year when you go and get the satellite equipment. Do we have the same guarantee with these guys? Suppose you drop $300 on this system and 6 months or a ye
          • I learned this playing Tanarus a few years ago when it was $10 a month for just that. One day I woke up and realized I'd blown $180 on one bloody game with nothing tangible that was "mine". Cancel the subscription, and off goes the game.

            And you cancel your DirecTV subscription and off goes the programming. So what is your point exactly? It's a subscription.
            • The difference is we're used to commodity purchases with our games. Your analogy is only truly valid if before these satellite and cable companies came along everyone went to the store and purchased tapes of the shows they wanted to watch. That happens now with DVDs of course, but it evolved in reverse. What I am saying is this:

              99.9% of games that people play are purchase once, use as many times as you like. Put it on a shelf for a year or 10 and then bring it down and play it again. You own it. Just
          • Also, you wont be spending $300 on the box. He makes that clear.. the box will cost little or no money... and that's what makes this so appealing. Say it costs 20 bucks a month.. say I'd spend 800 dollars on a gaming PC. That's 40 months of gaming...
      • I dunno...I'm renting a house right now. No, I don't own it, but it's pretty damn nice when it's raining outside.
    • In the video he mentions "premium titles that you own for the life of the box" So there is that.
    • Actually, it's more like cable pay-per-view. You pay a monthly fee with a contract and you get the hardware for free, some freeware/shareware games for free, and access to the network for free. However, to play conventional games (non-shareware), you have to pay an additional one-time fee for the game, and Infinium has stated that they don't want to undercut the normal market prices for games. So in order to play, for example, Half-Life 2, you have to pay for the Infinium gaming service monthly, and an a
  • "Still. Where did the lighter fluid go."

  • insightfull (Score:5, Funny)

    by CoffeeJedi ( 90936 ) on Thursday June 09, 2005 @12:43PM (#12770312)
    from TFA:
    Have you beefed up the system specs in the last year?

    Bachus: We've widened the Lies Pipeline signifigantly, and upgraded the Chicanery Processing Unit to be 30% faster.

  • Stupidest thing I've read in a while (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Jtheletter ( 686279 ) on Thursday June 09, 2005 @01:02PM (#12770647)
    people are skeptical so therefore they become more skeptical and therefore they become more skeptical.

    How in the world does that even make any sense? By that logic the opposite should also hold true and anyone who believed in the product therefore believed more, and then more still!

    Here's the real reasons people became more and more skeptical of the product - because the man leading the company has submarined so many other VC-funded startups it's insane anyone still gives him money. Because when the community did some digging their multimillion dollar funded base of operations was an empty storefront. Because the tech they were touting was beyond anything else at the time and there was nothing but some CG images to back up that they even had a prototype. Because when a website did some more digging and published and article full of facts they threatened to sue. Because every single time something came out about their "product" it was 'soon soon soon!' and yet nothing ever materialized.

    Skepticism does not come from nothing and feed on itself. Skepticism comes from making outrageous claims and not backing them up and flying the face of logic with no proof.

    I appologize for not linking to articles/slashdot posts/etc for all of the claims above, but I'm pretty sure /. readers are all too well aware of what I'm talking about.

    • How in the world does that even make any sense?

      It doesn't on the individual scale, it does on the cultural scale. My skepticism re-inforces yours, re-inforces mine again. This is how "group-think", a very real phenomenon, happens.

      By that logic the opposite should also hold true and anyone who believed in the product therefore believed more, and then more still!

      It would, if there were critical mass. Remember when the PS/2 was released?

      This, incidentally, is a sign that they have a major PR disaster on

  • Short on cash. (Score:5, Informative)

    by yotto ( 590067 ) on Thursday June 09, 2005 @01:05PM (#12770689) Homepage
    2.5 weeks ago, StockPatrol.com has this to say [stockpatrol.com]:

    Investors and observers who have been awaiting the debut of Infinium Labs Inc..s (OTCBB: IFLB) .Phantom Gaming System. will have to wait a little longer. The Company, which has repeatedly delayed introduction of its Phantom, now claims that its .goal. is to .commence the launch. of the product in the fourth quarter of 2005 . but only if it can first secure at least $11.5 million. That is just the beginning. Infinium says it will need $22.2 million over the next year. At last report, the Company had $4,102 in available cash.

  • You know, someone should warn G4 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by AzraelKans ( 697974 ) on Thursday June 09, 2005 @01:23PM (#12770933) Homepage
    I know this sort of thing gives them ratings, but G4 should think twice about showing scams, I mean theres some level of er.. "innocence" in trying to convince complete non gamers that the Killzone 2 trailer was "realtime gameplay" but seriously the "phantom"?!

    In case you havent noticed the Phantom is a "console" that will fail in purpose, and as soon as it does, the extra "initial capital" from the naive investors will disappear in thin air. (except from the pockets of those who orchestrated the whole deal of course) check the bios of these guys they are con artists.

    This sort of thing could blow in their faces. not that they should worry about their credibility (which is zero anyway) they should worry about investors seeking for blood when this thing finally blows its cover.

  • Compared to the endless wait you'll have when you try to download a 3+ Gig game over a secure connection.

    What's that, you say?

    The Phantom will leech bandwidth all day and night to "pre-load" the hard drive with games you'll never buy?!?

    Whoo-hooo! I didn't need low ping times or quick downloads for work or more important stuff like games that function...

    I don't care if each console comes with a complementary hooker, I'd never buy from these dirt balls.

    PS - Hey, G4. Way to go on those hardba
  • But when he swears on the Phantom that the Phantom is real and is coming "Soon" then it's not much different than an empty promise.
  • replace the word people with "The Phantom mangement spin" and the word Skeptical with "Bullshit"

    "people are skeptical so therefore they become more skeptical and therefore they become more skeptical."

  • The Phantom...Lives? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Necromancyr ( 602950 ) on Thursday June 09, 2005 @11:29PM (#12776873)
    The Phantom...Lives? No. No it doesn't. Next article please.
  • Am I reading this wrong or is this 12.8 cents a share? http://phantom.net/investors/news_watch.asp?qm_pag e=86687 [phantom.net]

    Man, 26 bucks get ya 200 shares. How low till he's beggin Bill for a job?

  • Okay.. I watche dthe whole lame ass "interview" and I still didn't see the thing "working"
    I saw a desktop computer with a lame menu system, and a list of titles. And then some fancy logos flashing on the screen. but NOTHING ACTUALLY PLAYING; no games, no video, no music. NOTHING.

    It's still bullshit.

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