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,
This whole thing feels like a pump and dump from the very beginning.
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.
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
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?
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!!!!
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.
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.
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. :-)