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Phantom Game Console
jasoncart writes "In a bold move newly formed US technology company Infinium Labs Corporation have announced the release of a new gaming console. They promise that it will be faster than any other console on the market, and have a huge games catalog (32k+ games apparently) available over broadband. Can they take on the big boys? Is broadband pentration high enough? Only time will tell - prototypes are promised in March." There's also an interview with their PR spokesdrone. *cough*Indrema.*cough*
This is doomed to failure. Without any of the big name gaming companies to back them up, noone will buy the console.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the next 3do
no
It's either fraud, stupidity, or MAME-in-a-box.
Think they're seeking capital?
Itdosn't seem like they've got the bandwidth to survive a slashdotting. how do they expect to push the games down constantly?
How in the world are they going to have 32,000 games to start with? Are that many in the world now? This must be a case of quantity over quality.
Something tells me this is just a joke. I sat and listened to the little media hype thingy, and I actually laughed out loud.
It shows a little rendered image of a console, while saying things like "Imagine being able to pay for each play" and "Imagine downloading the latest patches and bugfixes".
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
If they try to take this device and compete with Nintendo, MS and Sony they have no chance to survive. The product is too ahead of its time to make any money. However, it could be succesful if they market it to hotels, airlines, trains, doctors, dentists, cafes, etc. Put a money slot on it and put it in various public places. I think if they market it this way they can be quite profitable.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
It is interesting that the richest company in the world (Microsoft) released a game console to take on the clear leader in the console market (Sony), and has lost TONS of money attempting to gain market share in this market. Now, an unknown company with who knows how much cash on hand is going to attempt to squeeze out these 2 leaders... Someone get the company e-mail address and send them Chapter 11 paperwork now.
I don't think 684 versions of Tetris, each with slightly different graphics, should count as distinct games.
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
Anyway, if they actually did make 32,679 separate games, most of them probably suck due to lack of imagination, polish, play testing, or they simply aren't fun. The idea is halfway decent, though I don't think enough people have broadband to make this viable, but the details are rather far-fetched.
I wonder if they count variations as separate games like Sears used to do with their versions of Atari 2600 cartridges. I remember the Space Invaders label boasted something like "120 Games!", which meant standard, moving bunkers, no bunkers, invisible invaders, fast missles, zigzagging missles, moving bunkers + fast missles, moving bunkers + zigzagging missles, moving bunkers + fast missles + zigzagging missles, etc.
Boy that flash intro with 4 static images was really worth the download/loading time.
Their blurb reads like toxic corporate MBA talk. "It'll change the world forever, parents will be able to monitor what their children play." blah blah blah.
This is a company which -obviously- doesn't know who it's target audience is. You don't win people over with a cheesy looking computer model of your console. You win them over by showing flashy graphics in your commercials matched with good games.
This company is doomed to go down in flames unless they figure out how to play with the big boys and their big PR companies.
The Generation
I'd say something witty here, but I'm not that bright.
I don't buy any of it. But where to start?
"talking with my Uncle Isaac a few weeks ago... As a Sony employee, he has access to internal releases..."
But somehow none of the insider news sites got even a glimmer of this? No one but your "Uncle Isaac" mentioned it to anyone outside the company?
They're going to "use a Transmeta chip, so that the CPU's instruction set can be "field-programmed..."
Hmm, will the transmeta chip also emulate the memory architectures, audio co-processors, etc?
Other things said don't even make sense... "Infinium is going to be paying them to produce each unit (instead of the converse which they often see with their own products).
Just enough smoke and mirrors to sound almost correct. Nice job.
Supporting Linux would be a key advantage over existing console makers, who go out of their way to prevent customers from running a real OS on their devices.
I wonder if you've ever heard of this little company called Sony...
Anyway, yeah, what-ever. An advantage, yes. A key advantage, no. They might sell more consoles. They wouldn't sell any more games, thus they would get no more money from royalties. That's where the money in the console market is.
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
Competition is always a great thing in the business world, because *generally* the consumer wins. At present there is no way this startup can compete. Sony, Nintendo, and even Microsoft to a lesser part have put millions-billions in research. Slapping together this weeks fastest graphics chip with an x86 processor does not mean it's the fastest system, actually thats far from the truth. If it were that simple everyone would make their own consoles. To have the gaming industry take them seriously, perhaps they should come down to planet earth talk about realistic game numbers, because it's quality that counts not quantity. The indrema touted good things too, yet look where that turned out. I suggest they put their money where their mouth is and prove that it is much faster then other consoles, because at the moment they are nothing more then a Realian game console manufacturer.
32,000 games is about what there is available for PC. I think this will be a PC without a keyboard using a per-per-play system to download and play from broadband. Just about any game could be downloaded and played this way, if the license could be worked out.
PC games aren't console games, they're worlds apart with less and less crossover.
If you prefer PC games, good for you. But show me a good fighter (a la Dead Or Alive or Tekken) or platformer (a la Mario Sunshine) for the PC. Or any good arcade ports for PC. It's just not conducive to it. I recently tried Dragons Lair 3D on my PC, and it's choppy and slow compared to the way it played on Xbox. A trend with most console ports.
On the other side, playing FPS and RTS games with a gamepad pretty much stinks.
>> The current prices of hardware is incredible. I just built another great system for $400.
That so? My PS2/Xbox and NGC combined cost less than the P4 rig I just put together. And I recycled the radeon and sb live from my old machine. All that cost was case/psu, CPU, mobo and RAM.
Bah. The console vs PC gay-battles are every bit as lame as the Sony vs Nintendo console wars.
I like good games, and thats that. I don't discriminate based on which platform they were released for. Competition is good.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Unfortunately for Infinium, the realization of quality over quantity has not yet penetrated the production side of the market.
It's a simple fact: gamers do not want 32k games, we want 4 good ones. We want our Smash Bros., our GTA, our Splinter Cell. We are happy with Halo, and don't you dare steal our Suikoden.
In other words, flaunting information such as 32k games will only placate those who don't want to be sucked in the way of the Gamecube or the early N64. These are the people who (perhaps rightfully) will not jump on the newest console caravan unless they are assured that games will actually be released for the platform.
For the vast majority of the remaining gamers, we care more about the big names, broad scope, and refined entertainment that the occasional great game has to offer. We would rather see a stack of 10 groundbreaking games for the platform than a storage bin of crap.
This isn't really a videogame system: "The game console is an 'ALWAYS ON BROADBAND DEVICE.'"
Their business model is, apparently, to let publishers put their games online for download by "phantom" users. I bet the number 32,000 comes from the total number of games ever released, which could all, in theory, be played on a "windows based" system.
I bet this console is really just a PC with a broadband connection, a nice case, and a wireless controller.
Vaporware = yes
Impossible = no
How can you have a game console that is faster than anything currently out there, broadband capable, and has 32,000 games to choose for not including casino and adult related?
Simple...
It is a PC, in a small profile system, running a 2ghz chip and either ATI or NVIDIA card. The unit, essentially, just plays all 32,000 PC games out there.
Look at it this way, these guys actually COUNTED how many PC Compatible games have been made.
AMEN!
I dont know, but is seems to me that verteran entrepeneurs who have a track record in building eCommerce and enterprise applications probably know squat about writing video games that are fun to play. I would think their only hope would be to get some of the big game devs (capcom, blizzard, etc) to write games for the system.
Take for instance the turbo graphics 16 system. One of the reasons why the system failed miserably was the fact that most of their games sucked because the writers of many of the games (at least the launch games) were not video game programmers.
Well just have to wait and see what this is all about. From what they say, it seem like a pretty good deal.
seamless upgrades and patch management
game rentals
cross platform capabilities
etc etc
I think calling him a Spokesdrone is an understatement. Check this answer out:
Except for the term Wi-Fi (and maybe synergy, although that's so 20th century), I think we've hit just about every buzz word in the English language.
Forget the whales - save the babies.
C64 and Amiga are two completely different computers, you can't say that "line" had 26k games in any meaningful sense. That's very much like lumping the Apple 2 and Mac together.
Since I'm of much the same mind as the original poster, I'll respond to this. First of all, I can do damn near anything with my computer that I want to. It can do thousands of things that the consoles can't even dream of. I even do real work on it. But, even if we're just considering games, the PC still wins. Much better selection of controllers (including keyboard/mouse), giving you just the right type of control for any given game. Compare playing a FPS game using keyboard/mouse to attempting to aim using those crappy thumb-nobs on most console controllers. Much more flexibility and immersiveness in games. No console can match the PC for depth of gameplay, and especially not for customization. Try creating a mod for a console game. Hell, that's where Counter-Strike came from. A mod. And now it's the most popular FPS game in the world. Try creating a game like Neverwinter Nights for a console. Not gonna work. Consoles still have a looong way to go before they can compete with the PC. They're fine if you're just a casual gamer and you don't have much use for a decent PC other than games, but if you're a more serious gamer, then there's nothing out there that can beat a good PC. Sure, it's a lot of money, but you get a LOT more out of it than you get from a console.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
http://www.mavav.org/
Remember this site? Kids in college had an assignment to come up with a fake gaming site. This Phantom (akin to Vapor-war) is obviously exactly the same thing.
To each his own, but as a serious gamer I feel obliged to respond to your post. But I'm tired of saying all this like a broken record so I'll try to keep it short.
;)
The whole PC vs console debate is so fucking dated and pedestrian that to make your assertion in any gaming circle will get you laughed out of the room. I don't think you mean badly, but I'll venture to guess that you're just mainly into a certain type of game. Nothing wrong with that, but I do take issue that you're spinning your personal preference in games as objective reason that [god-like-voice]PC's Are Better Gaming Systems Than Consoles[/god-like-voice].
I have the high end PC setup, and I agree that Battlefield 1942 cannot be enjoyed the way it should be on an XBox. Neither can Icewind Dale, Warcraft 3, or Space Quest 4. Now that we have that out of the way. I feel bad for you, the exclusive PC gamer, because you'll never enjoy the likes of Panzer Dragoon Orta, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Metal Gear Solid 2, Soul Calibur, Ikaruga, Megaman 2, or Punch Out. Even if the above were ported/emulated to a PC (I think MGS2 might already be ported), they would be as bad as playing Starcraft on an N64 (*cough*).
So I'll keep my MAME cabinet, all my consoles, and my PC. I count myself lucky because I can afford to do so. If you want to get into console gaming, feel free to ask me (or someone like me) for recommendations. Don't worry, no one will tell your UT clanmates.
This is the line that's the kicker:
"There are currently 32,679 retail game titles available and 418 shareware game titles and this does not include; adult, casino, sequels and new releases in past 6 months. We will be working with developers to develop a licensing model to distribute all of these titles electronically to our customer's."
Or paraphrased si vous preferer: There are 32,679 games out there...hopefully the people that made them will let us let you download them! Plus we have bad grammar!
How you see the world is how the world sees you.
Much more flexibility and immersiveness in games.
1) What do you mean by "flexibility"? A larger variety of games? Not true - I propose that the variety of game genres is roughly equivalent console/PC. I can't play Civ 2 on my PS2, but you can't play DDR on your PC.
2) More immersive? Vague nonsense. Immersiveness is all about personal experience with a game, and is generally totally independant of hardware. Tell me GTA3 isn't "immersive". Tell me Virtua Fighter 4 isn't "immersive".
No console can match the PC for depth of gameplay
Vague nonsense. What do you mean by "depth"? Virtua Fighter has astonishing tactical depth as well as unrivalled twitch gameplay.
and especially not for customization
OK, granted =]
A mod. And now it's the most popular FPS game in the world.
So? How is this relevant?
Consoles still have a looong way to go before they can compete with the PC
In terms of what? Sales? Hoo boy are you in for a shock =]
if you're a more serious gamer, then there's nothing out there that can beat a good PC
How about a custom built machine that never crashes, never needs patches, and has the most polished games with interfaces specifically designed for standardized controllers? You know, like a PS2? =]
grib.
maybe