Phantom Releases, Retracts Game List, Debut Rated

Thanks to GameSpot for its story noting that Infinium Labs has released, then quickly retracted a list of game for its Phantom PC-based 'console' shortly following its CES debut. The story notes: "The list featured over 500 titles from 60-plus companies", and the page's new notice, which replaces the old list (Google cache), "urged visitors to return to the site to see a list of games 'pending developer/publisher approval,' which indicates some of the companies on the list [which include Atari and Take Two] may have asked Infinium to remove it." 1UP has also debuted a preview of the Phantom, taken from impressions of a working unit at CES, in which the console is described as "promising and grounded in reality" (though a second editor is " not yet convinced.")

Comments

One giant logic hole in the pricing...

[2Flower]

So, the writer says it's a good deal, because a PC plus video card that you have to routinely upgrade will cost you more than the 300-500 dollar phantom plus 10 dollar monthly obligatory subscription (on top of which you add even more charges for game lisences).

In short: You don't have to constantly replace and upgrade your PC anymore! You play your phantom forever!

Except, of course, that PC games scale up and up as the years go by, demanding newer and more powerful hardware... while the Phantom remains a single closed box you can't upgrade at all. The best you can do is buy a 'Phantom 2' or whatever they'll call it in 2008, just like you'd buy a PS3, X-Box Next, or Gamecube Part Deux.

How exactly does that make this a bargain when the only advantage -- a closed, upgradeless PC -- is its primary disadvantage for the types of games you're gonna play? All you're doing is buying a low-cost PC and then constantly paying monthlies for the honor of using it, then repeating the cycle every few years as usual.

If I'm wrong, please, tell me I'm wrong and why; I would like to see something like this succeed, I just don't see this particular example working...

This only makes me more suspicious of the Phantom

[FortissimoWily]

All of the titles in the list seem to be old DOS and Win95/98 titles.
It makes me suspicious that they got some of the game-names wrong (for example, they attribute Capcom with a "Mega Man X Legends", which does not even exist, although it's quite possibly a typo of 'Mega Man Legends', which was ported to PC around 1998), and even credited the wrong companies with games (an outfit called 'Div Games Studios' is listed as supplying Mega Man X, but that game is a part of Capcom's flagship Mega Man property). Oh yeah, and some of the companies that were listed no longer exist (some haven't for years, some went bankrupt not-so-long-ago), and others are listed several times - note that many of Take Two's various names are in that list, and Disney is listed as both 'Disney' and 'Disney Interactive'. The presence of editions of some software dated as far back as 2000 is also quite bizarre.

The whole list reads like they skimmed through a few lists of games-by-{whoever} on GameFAQs or someplace similar, and shoved it all into one document (and forgot to name it - it was called Untitled Document when it was first up).

(And isn't it odd that nobody has said they have dev-kits for the Phantom, considering when dev-kits arrive for existent new consoles, you tend to hear about it on gaming news sites?)

Incidentally, I've seen quite a few of the listed titles available for purchase on TryGames.com - isn't it curious that TryGames.com's try-and-buy-online service for PCs is so similar to the much-touted broadband-content-delivery-system that the modified-Win-XP (IIRC) based Phantom will supposedly have?

In closing, it just seems to me like it's more a case of "these big-name-big-developer games will run on our modified PC-like box", as opposed to "these developers are making games on our machine"...

likely not a hoax. may still be a scam.

[*weasel]

This is quite likely similar to my long-held belief regarding the massmog Horizons.

It isn't necessarily a hoax per se, no-one is going to be pointing and laughing.

Rather it's more like a scam. An attempt to use the overly hungry and journalistically naive hardcore gaming media to push their non-existant product with big promises. Promise the moon, mock up some renders, build up the buzz, sell. Who cares if the product never materializes? the money sure did.

Quite frankly what would it take Infinium to make a 'playable' prototype unit? 1 slickly designed custom case, standard pc parts, a neat 3d demo and mockups of potential menus. Horizons similarly licensed a 3d engine and had some artists mock up a few of their promises to look good in still images.

The difference is, the David Allen feller behind Horizons simply promised the moon and stars, grew the marketability of the product, and got bought out. He never implied partnership with other corporations, let alone dozens of corporations.

Infinium may be crossing the bounds of shameless and jumping squarely into the illegal by trying to build their name through unlicensed implications and declarations about the involvement of established gaming developers and publishers.

So no, I don't expect them to put out a press release in 4 months saying 'April Fools!'. Rather, I expect for someone to eventually be suckered into investing into this idea, and after a year or so having to quietly put out a press release saying: yolk's on us folks, it doesn't exist and never did.

Re:YAOC

[ceejayoz]

Also, there is a real question of costs. $300-500 bucks for the hardware, $10/month for the service, $45/month for broadband, plus the cost of games?

The average person who'd buy this would already be paying broadband, cost of games. So, after the initial purchase cost (which, as noted, is significantly less than buying a new gaming PC), there's really only a $10 monthly cost - not bad.

"Cable Modem"?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can somebody please explain to me why there's a coaxial socket on the back labeled "cable modem"?

I don't get it - I thought cable internet provider's signals and boxes were proprietary, but had an ethernet port on the back that you connected to. Your computer never sees the raw cable connection and is still able to transmit & receive.. so why would this device need it?

Also: On the grounds that the more insane the better, that's a bitchin' power socket. It'll probably only run you about a trillion dollars for a replacement if you loose the cable or need to replace the power supply. Which at this point, I'm guessing is a full-size standard ATX power supply in a custom case about the size of a large cow.

Why is everybody convinced is not vapor?

[AzraelKans]

Every time infinium labs (which is not a real trademark by the way) shows something about the phantom everybody just nods their collective heads and says "ah! so its real!" so far not only they havent even announced when the console will be released, Everything that they have released about this product does not prove that they are developing the units at all. Im not saying they are vapor hardware for a fact but they havent released anything that proves otherwise They have shown: A "beta test" sign up form A video A webpage A games list A "working prototype" at the CES. (which is not much considering is a modified PC running PC games) Where are the definitive specs, designs, release shipping dates, sdk, known developers, marketting campaign, etc, etc? As far as I can see, they are selling an idea of some thing that could be done (and that actually has been done by other companies in the CES) in the hopes of attracting investors, but other than that is just marketting talk.