Slashdot Mirror
Investigating Infinium Labs
the web writes "By now, the whole world has heard of Infinium Labs and their infamous Phantom Game Console, but what do we really know about what could be the next big gaming console or the people bringing it to market? At this point, we know little beyond what they've been willing to share. We haven't seen the console outside of a few 3D renderings, we haven't seen the facility where they claim beta units are being built, and we haven't seen the Infinium Labs base of operations." Our own Roblimo has found some reality to the Phantom console.
from the link: "Infinium Labs is an industry-leading global entertainment and interactive game company."
How on earth can you be an industry leader when you haven't shown anything yet? Hell, I could claim "GrubCorp(tm) is an industry-leading global purveyor of anti-cancer drugs and massage oils." without having gotten off my lazy ass to do anything.
Don't be suprised to hear that they're planning to get more investors in the near future..
Trolling is a art,
...the Phantom is a Phantom.
I'd say more, but my guild is raiding.
This whole thing feels like a pump and dump from the very beginning.
www.hardocp.com has had the skinny on the founder of Infinium. Let's just say "Phantom" is the right name for the console.
Even if I was in the market for a game console, I definitely wouldn't buy from a spammer.
That ought to tell you something right there.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
This in direct contrast to the GameSpy editorial Slashdot linked to two weeks ago.
I guess it's not hard to figure out where some of that $25M in capital went...
For reference, Steve didn't note it in this article, but he and Kyle have run a previous "insight" into the mystery behind Infinium Labs, and when he called the Big Cheeze to ask him about the non-existent offices, the guy threatened to press charges against Kyle.
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
We'd like you to be aware of a great opportunity, and wish to send you an updated and improved catalogue of our other products,if you send a dollar to Happy Dude, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield...
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
a 400 hundred dollars console that you will need to pay 10 bucks a months(per game?) to use.
Gee, I'll sign right up.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I scoured my game magazines to find info on the Phantom, and I came across my GameInformer that covers this years' E3. They have an interview with the CEO or President or something, I forget.
What i learned though, is that they are thinking about just selling them on Ebay, or other distrobution channel, since they don't have major support. The big thing though, is that they want to make the system available with different amounts of RAM or HD space. This is a huge no-no for consoles. Consoles should *not* become PC's, with regards to upgrading.
...has some Fair And Balanced(tm) Phantom coverage over at their site. From their comic archives:
Dude, Woah
I Hate The Stupid Phantom
They represent not just a new console, but a new way of doing games; nobody else is transferring whole games across the Net. They seem to be leveraging their system as more interoperable with what's already out there (you thought XBOX seemed like a PC?). I think the best mix will come in the generation of consoles after the Phantom, with a convergence of both retail and downloadable media. A lot of people don't want the hassle of waiting while downloading new games, but there's a lot of reasons why buying a game and then updating it over the Net would be a good thing - say if some horrendous exploit or bug was discovered after launch (cough FZero cough). And then there's the possibility of hooking up the old SNES controller... hey, I can dream, right? ;)
OK, so it's an Xbox made by a different company - although it sounds like they're doing the impossible and writing even more draconian licensing terms than even MS..
Roll with me on this...
Features:
Up to 3.0 GHz processor with 256MB DDR RAM
- High-performance nVidia video card
- High-performance Intel motherboard
- Dolby Digital(TM) 7.1 Surround Sound
- 100+ Gigabyte internal storage device
- On-board RF wireless modules
- S-Video, RCA or component video and PAL
- 10/100 baseT Ethernet
- 1 wireless controller
- Wireless keyboard and mouse
- 2 USB ports
- 4 controller ports
Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't a proprietary box that has all these features have a COMPAQ logo on it?
You dont play many video games, do you?
"Sorry Im not more user-friendly."
"what could be the next big gaming console "
So could anything, and yet even XBox with all M$ wasn't the "the next big gaming console". I wouldn't hold my breath on this one.
Oh, I can't help quoting you because everything that you said rings true
Slashdot's own Roblimo has done an internal investigation of said web-based geek news site and found that is has no base in reality at all.
What, you dorks seriously thought it was all a big hoax or scam?
So these guys think they can package PCs as consoles, and sell a subscription based service.
Good luck to them. They'll fail.
PC games and console games are practically a world apart. As a rule, console games don't play well on a PC, PC games dont play well on a console.
Not only do they have PS2/NGC and Xbox to compete with, they're doing so with an inferior product, and one that customers have shown repeatedly they DONT WANT.
People want to go to the store, buy the game, and own it. They don't want to "liscense" it. They dont want their libraries limited by how much space this thing's hard drive has.
This is DIVX for the game industry. It'll be stillborn.
What would be a killer plan, though, would be to revamp the "Sega channel" idea, but do it like this: sell an adaptor for xbox or ps2/ngc with hdd addon, broadcast playable demos on the channel 24/7. No monthly subscriptions - that will kill the idea, people HATE monthly fees. People would rather pay 500 bucks upfront than 10 bucks a month for a year. Think of the channel as a form of advertising. Have publishers pay to have their latest demo broadcast. Hell, you could piggyback the demos on G4 or TechTV or something, come up with a standard so that you could broadcast for different consoles and PCs...
Ah well, no point in getting all worked up about it. It'll be a long, long time before execs "get it". They're so horny over the idea of a constant, predictable revenue stream that subscriptions offer, they cant see straight. Xbox live is tanking, as will Phantom, as will the uber-mega-next-gen-only-5$-a-month-for blah blah scheme.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I was reading this article right as 'i Phantom' by Mr. Lif came on. Coincidence, or evidence that this console is for reals on the psychic level, yo? You decide.
http://xkcd.com/386/
There was an article I read somewhere, that they tracked down the "headquarters" to a strip mall somewhere. Inside, there was like a desk and that-was-it. When they called the Infinium owner or whatever, he claimed their headquarters had a hundred units already. When they confronted him about the actual address, he freaked out and threatened to sue them. I'll believe this unit when I see it for sale IN A STORE.
This console will fail. One key ingredient they're missing is games, and I can't see developers rushing to support a system which nobody has heard of. I also think it's telling that they manage to misspell nVIDIA in the intro animation.
I'm running WinXP and using IE to browse the site. So I want to download the video and I get prompted to install an ActiveX object... umm... NO! Its just downloading a video and we have HREF tags for that. There is no way in hell I am trusting some company I have never even heard of to install an ActiveX object. So blow me Phantom!
JOhn
Campaign for Liberty
Perhaps the reason why no one has actually seen an Infinium game console is because their still searching for the Unobtanium necessary for the 3 THz processor required for its Blazing Fast Graphics Subsystem(tm).
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
...can be found on my weblog -Kyle Orland
Phantom... /obvious
"I am a kernel in the linux army"
Step 1: Announce next-generation video game console
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit!
Mikey-San
Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
V-A-P-O-R ...and Phantom was it's name-o
V-A-P-O-R
V-A-P-O-R
*no i wasn't yelling with all those caps*
Remember that? Bit Boys Glaze3D was promised to be the Voodoo2 killer, then TNT2 killer. They released outrageous benchmarks and cool screenshots, photos of the chip, specs etc. In the end they had NOTHING at all.
Yeah thats what this is. BS
It pretty much the same thing "It's comming!" "It's better!" "It's faster" "It's revolutionary!" "It'll change the world!" "It's ALMOST DONE!"
In the end it's all BS.
In Soviet Russia, the television watches YOU!
Better than my luck...
I'm running Mozilla 1.4 on OS X and I get... A BLANK PAGE for the infiniumlabs.com splash page. Gotta love silly FrontPage 5.0 IE proprietary "features". With interoperability like that I don't even want to think about their crap product.
And fyi for super gamer geeks, never heard of the company before. I doubt the WHOLE WORLD has heard of it considering seemingly only your niche (and not even half at best of your niche) has heard of it. So give it a rest.
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
And the box sells for 300 dollars. How can they possibly sell it for that cheap? Even Microsoft couldn't pull off these sorts of features for that cheap. A wise choice would be to run Linux, and don't understand why they didn't choose Linux and save on the licensing costs. Unless this is a front organization for Microsoft and this is really XBox2....
Here's the URL to the Hardocp article on this guy.
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTEy
Lots of bankrupcy and debt..
"I am a kernel in the linux army"
They spelled [url="http://www.nvidia.com"]nVidia[/url] wrong in their video. Verified this in their windows 250k and 500k streams... haha... look for NVIDEA... its about 2:40 into the video... made by gamers? Not the video becasue a true gamer would know how to spell nVidia...
JOhn
Campaign for Liberty
Infinium Labs basically is to hardware what Veon Prism is to software. Have you gone to their site and seen the video? The thing only exists as a 3D rendering, as apparently does their Test Facility. The company is virtually nonexistent or at least nonviable, and the Phantom is a non-product. It's beyond vaporware... I don't even know what it is.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
It runs Windows XP, this means it runs the RPC service that the recent worms are having fun with that you can not kill. So, how long will it take to send the correct malformed data to the RPC service to cause your own code to run allowing for a remote command prompt.
Throughout all this sordid affair, I've found one thing more shocking than the actual company and it's non-existent product.
Huge gaming sites are surprisingly tolerant of it.
So far, the only people who've flat out said "This thing is a joke, a lie to sucker stupid venture capitalists out of their money with flashy marketing for a product that doesn't exist" is Penny Arcade. I just don't see with so much evidence against them that people aren't flat out saying "We refuse to cover this. We're not stupid enough to give you what you want, the hype you can use to steal even more money". If all these huge sites collectively decided to stop covering this "company" and its "product" until they provide some *solid, concrete reason* to give them coverage, maybe they would finally just fade out of existence, like all the other companies this shmuck has been a part of.
* - These reasons would have to include a working prototype and an actual business plan rather than a business theory.
.. it was discovered that the phantom console will be in reality a virtual game console inside the famous MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies ... That virtual console is being developed as an addon (imagine it as a game inside a game, this was a very popular concept in those late Sinclair 48K games). The development of this addon was due to major complaints of the the MMOPRG users - ".. there's nothing left to do!! We want more ..." . Gamers will be able to trade micro games inside (Tomb Raider is being talked ..) and even watch some movies and listen to mp3!! Stay tuned for futher advances ...
I fuse with Mercer every single day...
Veon Prism link is here. That other link takes you to uncharted wild territory of banner-ad-riddled link farms.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
Here is the new catalog for you. I hope that Infineum has luck with the Phantom project.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/cgi-bin/hpdirect/shoppi ng/scripts/home/store_access.jsp?template_type=com puter_store&landing=desktops&category=compaq_presa rio&aoid=11074
Thanks for choosing Compaq,
Jeff
Basically, save your money...you're probably better off investing in SCO than this company.
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned for SEGA. ..."
Yeah, I agree with you. I haven't heard of Phantom either. I think "infamous" would be better hyphenated as "in-famous" (as in not famous).
In all fairness though it looks as if all of their games will be downloaded on demand. Not a bad idea considering they won't have any retail support. Guess we'll let the games do the talking because thats what makes a difference on consoles of any type.
JOhn
Campaign for Liberty
o/~ It's beginning to smell a lot like vapor..
So, they're selling a computer where you can only get games from them. In order to get those games you have to pay a monthly subscription fee, boy does it sound like a great idea, think about it.
There are no media drives (beyond the HDD) wher eyou could import software garner through a third party onto it (with the exception of USB drives, I seem to recall it having USB capability). Now, since the only way you can get games is through your dedicated broadband connection to their servers, they can really charge whatever they want for the software, heck they could even charge more than SRV if they wanted to, because you can't just go out to the store and buy Pong if you want to play it on your phantom, you have to buy it through them.
From teh standpoint of a greedy corporate entity, this isn't a very hard thing to do, hire some cheap labor to screw in pieces. Get some technicians to 'help' people install their console and proceed to make a good deal of money thanks to their total control over what the product can do (by controlling what software you can put onto the product).
Of course the fact remains that the person who runs it, at least as described by Penny-Arcade, and every article that they've been linking to, is totally sketch. It also remains that their listed office is a PO box in Mailboxes Etc.
In all seriousness, if you want your company to be treated like an adult you have to have an least the veneer of legitimacy, because unles you've established yourself in the market you're after, you can't go around making big claims and then not back them up with some demos (which wouldn't be that hard to fix up throw a couple of units at some EBs, give them some top-shelf games and let the kiddies play till their brains explode). After all, they're just selling a computer.
Whoops...Looks like you forgot that last...
Why is everyone suddenly called XYZ Labs? When I hear that I get the impression of lots of guys in white lab coats and I'm pretty sure thats not whats going on with these guys.
The best way to read the NewsForge article is that Tim Roberts trolled Roblimo. I'm impressed ... trolls, take note.
Read the HardOCP article first, then the NewsForge article. When Roblimo said, "He's renting high-end office space in Sarasota, Florida," soda nearly went shooting out of my nose. (I won't spoil it for you, read the articles.)
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
Really, is there much more to add?
lol
The OCP article is waaay too forgiving. This guy is a con-man, pure and simple. His only success was SAVVIS, a company he left when he was 21. His pappy probably got him a summer internship there and he didn't have enough influence to sink it. He lives the high life off of investor capital and then says "well, it WAS high risk after all" when it runs out and the venture goes bankrupt.
There is nothing about his plan or his situation that gives it the slightest chance of succeeding or even producing a single prototype. And even if it did, there is little that is new or interesting. Come on, we know the gaming community isn't the brightest bulb on the string of lights on the Internet christmas tree, but let's call a fraud a fraud.
Get that guy off my internet.
Never heard of em
/. after all
Base premise false; skip article
But post a new comment anyway, 'cause this is
--
SCO funded the six fingered man who killed my father.
-Inigo
Hmm... why do I give Trolls a +6 bonus :/?
"Infinium Labs" will say there's been a prototype for over twenty years, and that it's supported Linux for twelve.
Isint this a trademark or copyright of Interplay games?
The same way every movie studio talks about their latest "blockbuster" movie, even though it hasn't been released yet. Or the music industry hyping someone's "latest hit single" that will be released next week.
If you haven't noticed it yet, just pay closer attention. It is really sad.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
I pressed the back button about 10 times on that comic strip and didn't find a single funny one. Why does the all great and powerful CmdrShithead link to penny arcade? Does he have some sort of mental abnormality?
If the [your favorite old system here] came back out today, I would go get one. Why? Not because the graphics are particularly good, but because the games are really fun! That's what a game system is for... fun games. If the graphics are great... great. If not, who cares? I just want to have fun. Mario will never die!
peace
stuff |
...and we haven't seen the Infinium Labs base of operations.
I heard it's in Lindon, Utah.
The hype was simply to trick gamers into providing their e-mail address in the beta test application so they could sell the list to spammers.
That's my prediction anyway.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I am forced to wonder with the major problem being /.ed can cause for a site... if they would do the same for another site which was not part of the OSDN.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
I'll probably get flamed for this, but there flash site is cool (site). It's pretty convincing, too.
I've never heard of Infinium Labs or the Phantom Game sole, and I live on the earth, read slashdot and even play games occasionally
Why do you not offer the same courtesy to other websites when they get slashdotted?
Poor poor roblimo.
Can dish it out, but can't take it.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
ROFL MCVOMIT
The statement, "Infinium Labs is an industry-leading global entertainment and interactive game company" simply states that they are both leading an industry, and that they are a global entertainment/interactive game company. It doesn't state that they are leading the global gaming industry, it could just be that they are leading *an* industry. Any industry. Pick one. Like elbow sharpening or lobster training. Oh, and they make games and have an employee in Namibia. :-)
nice freaking web page. It works in IE, but not in mozilla. And it's reported that active X use is required to view a video (freaking morons).
I haven't heard of them. After reading the other comments, not many people will probably ever hear of them. This should have been in the who the hell cares section, or the future failed projects section.
And they still have not broken even on their costs. What does that say about the product? If it was not for M$ they would be out of business.
Wait wait - so you're telling me that the X-Box live is a portal for FIFTEEN games - and it's ALMOST as popular as ONE PC GAME?
Wow, it must be doing AWESOME. That sure teaches me.
Asshat.
You may disagree, but to be blunt, you're wrong. -tgd
Don't get me wrong, I hope they keep investing in this crook until he pisses away all of their money... It just amazes me I guess...
Seriously. In the forum I frequent, a few members had seen Infinium Labs. The reason why we haven't seen anything besides renderings is that the business is actually a small rented office in a Florida mall, with a desk, computer, and a telephone.
www.google.com
If Infinium Labs wants to prove the community wrong then they should put out or shut up. If this thing is nothing but a vapor in someone's coffee then they should stop wasting our time and get on with doing whatever it is that they have been doing.
They harvested the spamtrap address i use here on slashdot and started to spam me. I've posted copies to NANAS if you dont believe me.
t om &ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Searc h
/16 they're hosted on and sent out nasty grams to the hosting company in question.
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=btfh.net+phan
(be advised of the link munging, if you cant get it to pull up, go to groups.google.com and do a search for the terms btfh.net and phantom, and you'll find it.)
I promptly firewalled the
Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
Check out the sneak peak video at phantom.net, about 2:30 into it. They misspelled nVidia.
By now, the whole world has heard of Ifinium Labs and their infamous Phantom Game Console
Nope.
It's just a big Flashed-out web site, and their address in Longboat Key is a residence, not a business address. Their domain is using Register.com's DNS server which means they are probibly hosting this pig on a broadband connection from some box in the guys basement. All Flash, no substance.
RTFA "It's interesting to note that the only images we've seen of the console, such as the one shown above, are simply 3D renderings and not photographs of actual prototypes."
Look like the same images you linked too.
It's posible that they are not renders but if you look at the other images on the site they all seem to be renders.
EA David Gardner -"... but the consumers have proven that actually what they want is fun."
Mod parent up!
It's just a PC. What's the big news here? Jesus.
How long will it take before MS realises that they are selling WinXP at a bulk rate to a competitor to the XBox and just kills the company off?
After all, they didn't hesitate to terminate the UK cellular telephone company who was making a WinCE based phone when they realised that they could get a better deal in Korea, if they stole Sendo's IP by bankrupting them.
They didn't hesitate to screw with Sharp's Windows license when they started to ship the Zaurus.
I don't expect this company to have a bright future.
Beep beep.
When I read the Hardocp article, I kept thinking that this is like something out of some heist movie. The guy's life is just too fictional in quality to beleive. Going from one failure to the next but still staying one step ahead of people catching onto the fact that all he is is a con man. wild stuff.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
Yea, maybe you should check out the link. IF YOU look at the pictures at the link, those look like photos to me.....moron.
The key phrase here is 'the box'. Looks like just a fancy PC case, right down to the PCI slot backpanel. The only hard part of building a prototype will be bypassing the XP logon screen. Have I said scam yet?
...Is that it actually *deserves* to crash and burn. And it will!
Read the [H]ard article.
Honestly, I don't think that Rob's article does the situation justice; the write-up at [H]ardOCP really does some great investigative reporting, and I think they are right on the money.
Not to mention the economic side of things... so this 'company' has raised $25 million in cash. Who cares? Microsoft loses 10 times that amount on the Xbox every quarter. So, this console would be entering a market where there are already three big players [struggling] to hold on.
Entering this market would be rediculously stupid.
Quite old, actually, here you go, the Phantom System.
:)
It's a NES clone released in Brazil in the late 80s. It was actually pretty good, with the design copied from the Atari 7800 and controllers copied from the Genesis.
You've all read World of Ends. What's the deal with these boardband partners Infinium talk about on their web site? Are they only going to offer service through ISPs who join with them? Sounds like they are trying to build a business model from the middle of the network. So if their product comes to market it could possibly pervert the nature of the internet. ISPs will expect deals with content and service providers and will block those who don't pay.
Compaqs come with CD-ROMs.
When and if it does get released, it'll be hacked into a Linux or *BSD box so fast.
Hell, buy about 100 of them and you'll have an impressive server farm.
A lot of people here have concluded that the Phantom is a con. They then say that it will never work, because the console sounds like it's going to suck. However, if this is a con, it does not matter what gamers think. This sort of racket (assuming it is a racket) is designed to hook not gamers, but investors.
Now, most investors have never played a game in their lives. They have no idea what makes a console successful or unsuccessful. So all the makers of the Phantom would have to do would be to make it sound appealing to investors:
1. Lots of buzzwords: Check.
2. Subscription services, meaning a continuous flow of revenue: Check
3. Commonly used parts, so there will be no manufacturing hastles: Check.
So, you can see that this console isn't designed to appeal to gamers, it's designed to appeal to naive venture capitalists.
OMG, 3DRealms just announced that Duke Nukem Forever with be the Phantoms launch title!
Life is like pants... fit in or you don't fit in.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Are VCs stupid? At least in the late 90s, they could invest in a company which any 12 year old could see will not make a profit, and take some profits at the IPO.
This simply won't work for obvious ways.
Consumer: So, this box will cost me $400.
Retailer: Yes
Consumer: And basically all it is is a PC made with off the shelf parts.
Retailer: Yes
Consumer: And there's no CD drives or external way of transferring data
Retailer: You can through our service
Consumer: Can I open it up and put in my own hardware?
Retailer: No. If you do you will be in trouble.
Consumer: Well, I guess that's OK. It's just going to be a game box. It can play games right?
Retailer: Oh yes. Lots of them.
Consumer: And I can play all the games I want for $9.95 a month?
Retailer: Oh no, some games are included with the subscription price; others will cost you extra money.
Consumer: Which ones will cost me extra?
Retailer: The good ones.
Consumer: So for $9.95 I get to play all the crummy games I want, and the right to pay more for ones I'd actually want to play?
Retailer: You also get targeted commercial content.
Consumer: Ooo... that sounds interesting. What exactly is that?
Retailer: Ads.
Consumer: So for $400 and a $9.95 a month, I get a computer I can't touch, all the games I've never heard of, lots of ads and the privilege of paying for the good games, which I could do at any store with an X-box or Playstation while actually getting the physical media? Sign me up!
Retailer: Sounds great! While you're here, can I interest you in some volcano insurance?
The Internet is generally stupid
"proprietary encryption scheme for data stored on its hard drive"
$5 says it will be broken a day after it ships. WHen I hear proprietary and encryption I think "security by obscurity" and we all know how well that works.
USB CD ROM / DVD ROM?
Gabriel Ricard
I rarely repeat jokes, so you'd better listen close the first time.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Looking at Pricewatch, building a 2GHz-class PC with good graphics for $400 doesn't appear to be a problem. What's the Infinium added value?
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
Great, the next article will be an expose' on Robrady Design...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Now, I agree with their basic conclusions; the phantom is being run by someone whose track record does not exactly inspire confidence, and it certainly is seriously lowbrow. Usually you want to look impressive before you start your PR dance, to avoid episodes like this.
On the other hand, they say that because a bunch of this guy's prior attempts tanked that this one will. The number I've heard kicked around most is that only 1 in 10 startups made it during the dot-com boom. This guy's record is better than that!
If you want to put holes in the phantom's plan, start with the cost of the box. It's $400. Then move onto the business model. You won't actually own any of the games, even in the sense that we do today where game developers are trying to sell us licenses to content, and not a copy of the game? That sounds like a pretty bad idea to me. Plus, it requires broadband, which is not a good call in the US at this point. Of course, at this rate, it will come out about the same time as DNF, so perhaps by then we'll have more broadband installations.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
That's kind of scary. Anyone got a link to the Phantom liscense agreement? This thing seems pretty cool, but it gives me the creeps. I mean, seriously, just by opening this thing up you violate some damned agreement. By tinkering with something that you own you stand the chance of getting in trouble....obsurd.
But misgivings aside, the Phantom seems like a sweet little peice of machinery coupled together with a good service. This should've been done a long time ago.
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTEy points out that all of tim roberts references come from his family and 90% of the companies he's started end up broke
I dont remember the name of the movie, but theres one in which Michael Caine and another actor create probably the most stupid theater play in story on purpose in order to collect money from investors, the plan was to make the play bomb (while putting the investor money in their pockets) Since investors got in for a percenteage of sales they got nothing if it failed. (it was a comedy so the play did well anyway and Michael Caine got in trouble)
It may sound silly but people like this DO exist, I have a friend who was working on a "new and revolutionary" software project along with a small team for months the pay was no good but they were promised raises as soon as the demo attracted investors, as soon as the company actually secured a major investor he got "secretly" laid off along with the rest of the software team (their NDA didnt allowed him to mention anything though) as far as they could tell no one else was hired, they didnt even bothered to ask him to finish the documentation before leaving, a few months later the company filed bankruptcy and dissapeared.
After reading the article, the story of this so called phantom "CEO" seems suspicious at best, 6 companies worked with, none of them succesful or famous, yet he kept getting CEO jobs, all of this with "hype fantastic" names (one of them is actually called BIG) and apparently funded in investors or family money, what is that money being used on? the photo of one of the "offices" with a single desk in an abandoned mall gave me the creeps.
Im beginning to think the Phantom is in fact just that (or maybe it just falls in the "made to bomb" category.) anyway after reading that If I were one of the investors of the phantom right about now I will be really worried.
"To get really good at doing this, you have to do multiple companies."
Interesting choice of words Mr. Roberts.
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
How long before something like this will be hacked? (I'm assuming it exists here) They say that if you try to open it, etc - bad things will happen. I wonder if they have 'case-open' type switches to detect if one was to try to pop it open. That could be interesting, pop open the case and the next time it has access to the internet it sends the Corporate Police(tm) after your ass for DMCA violations or whatnot.
Perhaps it won't have to be opened. They say it will be effectively controlled over the internet, even to the point that it calls home to get a key before letting you run a game. Privacy issues aside, I wonder how long before someone has it thinking it's talking to the Infinium servers when in reality it's talking to the Linux box accross the hall?
Without Infinium Labs I would not have new ammo in my insult belt. "Hey man, don't believe that music industry hype, the album sucks! They're just trying to sell you 'Phantomware'." Anyway, I hope they bring this to market because if it makes it, then there's a new console in town and I like games. I probably wouldn't touch this with a 100ft pole but I'd play someone else's. If they tank... hopefully they'll have manufactured 10s of thousands of these cripped PCs and they'll end up on the market for pennies on the dollar. By then someone should have figured out how to install linux on it or at least turn it into some sorta generic net/media appliance.
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
It is just a matchmaking service, hardware wise it is cheap ... as for software development, coding monkeys are also cheap nowadays.
... Live is brilliant marketing. Even some of its detractors cannot recognise it for what it truely is, like yourself.
As someone else said
All your data is encrypted in a format you don't have access to.
And you get to pay a monthly fee to use your software too.
Where do I sign up for this wonderful device?
-------- This space intentionally left blank --------
Seth FINKLESTEIN is a troll identity-theft of Seth FINKELSTEIN.
When will companies learn that expandability adds to functionality. If you want to add another hard disk or some such you shouldn't have "bad things happen," as it says in the article. One of the main reasons why TiVO had outdone its competitors was the fact that they weren't harsh on the people that decided to open the box. If they are really wanting to design a system that even enthusiasts would want, being a console or not, you need to allow people to open the box. Perhaps they could even sell their own expansions to work with it. I won't buy this system and I hope noone else does until they learn the value of their customers and their screwdrivers.
I wonder what his real reasons for working (assumed living as well) in Florida. just another thing i'd like to point out.
Sounds to me like a PC (running XP), Broadband, and a content delivery scheme much akin to Steam.. Whats so revolutionary about this?!.
I mean, did you just look at a TV showing a WinXP boot screen, or what? And how on earth did they show you the workings of this -- you actually got to see the servers they're going to be tossing these games out with? Packet activity?
I suspect highly that you saw the shell, and maybe there was even a computer in it, but that's all. This is entirely a possible thing, but the guy running this show is not a dedicated family man and casual games enthusiast. The guy running this show is the king of con artists, and it's always easier to con money than to earn it. Maybe this is the one time he's decided to actually put together a working business model. I think it's unlikely, though...
-----------------------
You are what you think.
Here are 2 photos of the Phantom. How did I get them? It's good to be the KING! http://www.angelfire.com/alt2/nanospeck/
Is it me? Have I suddenly become a blathering idiot overnight? Can you truly have a viable company exist on the slim revenues of PC hardware in non-upgradable set top box? Perhaps Infinium is planning on lightening the game publishers of some of thier bags of money they have lying around the office (I will assume this will not be done at gun point)? Or maybe they will start an as yet unnanounced broadbrand service to be sold along with this Phantom.
Now I am no idiot and I don't believe Tim Roberts or any other employees at Infinium are. This Phantom and service is going to be an extremely hard sell. Lets look at satellite radio as an example. Some very smart people and good ideas and excellent implementation. But the consumers on the other hand are doing a WTF "I have to pay $300 for an add on reciever and then pay $10 a month". Thus it has gotten very little market penetration.
For any model such as this to work you have to practically give the hardware away. Then get the consumer on board with the technology and the subscription. Then when you reach a critical mass start charging cost and maybe a little profit for the gear. This takes a long time and alot of money. Look at how long it took Direct TV and Dishnet to do it. Now they will charge you over $600 for thier respective PVR's and guess what we love it.
If there is any significant cost of entry into a subscrition service most consumers will not make the effort(lets face it that is what infinium is really selling). I am not opposed to spending $20 a month for gaming but I'll be damned if I have to pay you $400 first before I get the privilage of paying you the $20 a month subscription. So in the end I will have to say no thank you to the Phantom.
The truth suffers more from convictions than from lies.
Yeah. Sony can't afford to lose any money, those small-time losers.
Er... those look like CGI man, (you can tell by the lighting and the surface texture) . they are just the same pictures that are on the site as far as I can tell. (they are very good, but they are fake)
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
http://www.emptylogic.com/suprnova/torrents/299/sm b3.torrent
Bittorrent file for an amazing video of Super Mario Bros 3. It's pretty sweet, I'm spreading the .torrent link everywhere that I can.