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.
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."
Are they a public company? What is their symbol? which exchange?
I don't read or respond to AC posts
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.
Infinium signed a lease on some downtown Sarasota "class a" space with much local fanfare, including articles in the dominant local daily paper, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. And RoBrady, the company that did the physical console design (which I saw with my own eyes) is in the phone book and easy to find.
But as far as I could see, the only thing *important* about Infinium was that they were trying to build an online, "on demand" game delivery/sales system. And, as I said in my article, I expect other entrepreneurs will soon figure out ways to provide that service better/faster/cheaper than Infinium.
I suppose, one day, I ought to go look at Infinium again and see what progress they've made, if any. Might even take my camera this time.
- Robin