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Infinium Labs Phantom Unveiled In August
Jerek Dain writes "GameSpy.com has an article about the Phantom console from Infinium Labs with some new information. Apparently it will make its big debut (complete with proof of its existence) at the Ultimate Gamers Expo in August. But from the sound of things, can it really compete with gamers' PCs?" Of course, our previous story on the Phantom mentioned prototypes would be available in March, but we suppose delays never hurt anyone, as long as a product has good support and decent game quality when it does ship?
Correct: there is probably not room in the market for four consoles. There probably isn't enough room for three consoles BUT, and here's the important point, just because there's not room for four products does not mean that a new entry in the race cannot take the place of a console already in the market. Remember when Sony was the upstart? I'm sure plenty of people who bought the Saturn when it came out thought the Playstation was not going to be around for very long. Companies who are new to the game can succeed in the market if it's a quality console with good developer support and some exclusive titles worth owning. The Atari Jaguar had none of these things AND it had that awful controller which was not designed for humans.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
Here.
Until I see some evidence that somebody has actually *seen* or *touched* this wonder console that does everything, it's pretty much my take, too.
Chris Mattern
... if indeed this isn't the most appropriately named console ever.
Why do I M2 everything negatively?
The fact is that consoles are one of those things where if you can shave a few bucks off the thing, you do it. And the console companies are going to want to move to a subscription model for that matter as well. Even the software developers will be in favor of this model as well. Anything that saves them pressing and packaging costs they'll be in favor of.
The model will be that you buy the console for cheap, discounted if you pre-pay for N months of coverage with the associated online service. I tend to think there will be a variety of subscription models from 'pay as you play' to 'all you can play'.
The software companies will deal with the console manufacturers and their servers to get their software loaded on a system. They can do things like bug fixes and other sorts of updates seamlessly. Even if a title flops, there's a greater chance for the problems with the game to be fixed and a new version uploaded.
Oh yes. Piracy becomes a lot harder. Software companies will love that. Region enforcement is an interesting issue, though in theory the servers can determine the incoming IP address and place the region its coming from.
The consoles will be cheaper and more reliable because there's no moving parts in them. That means a lot in the console business where even ten bucks in the hardware costs can add up.
The big downside is that once the servers are shut down, the box becomes junk. Of course the companies might find a way to turn PCs into servers once they're no longer interested in running their own. The software companies selling the games will be interested in that to make a second round of profits. First you rent the game and then when the console is dead, sell the game a last time to the enthusiasts.
then we will call it the Phantom Menace.