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Phantom Releases, Retracts Game List, Debut Rated

Posted by simoniker on from the not-so-phantomic-anymore dept.

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.")

5 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Less believable with every story by Eluding+Reality · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I honestly don't know what to think... if it is a hoax, its one of the best attempts at a hoax I've seen in a while, if its real and this is how they plan on running things when (if?) it launches, they might as well just pack up and go home now instead of wasting time and money.
    So far they have promised announcements, demos etc etc etc and they have failed to deliver on all of them, since the final product will be rated on the quality of the content and their management of it, they have to sort out their operating practices to have any hope of succeeding, and thats not even taking into account the competition they have...

  2. YAOC by smoondog · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Marketing for this has been a little misdirected. After reading the article, it sounds like this is going to be a Pay-Per-View (Game?) on demand game console. Unlike every game console of the past, this is more like a cable box or a TIVO. First of all, thier market is going to be successful if they can make online games fly. 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? Good luck. If they give away the hardware and only charge a monthly fee (with a contract) then it might see more support, IMO. Also, what if it can't connect? Does it break? Can I download games and then take it to my cabin in the himalayas? What if the company goes bankrupt? Does it break then? My NES still works, as does my atari 2600. Honestly, this sounds worse than WebTV because with WebTV at least you got the internet.

    Prediction: This gets most of its money through hotels and related outfits. Also will look much like the movie (with adult stuff) menus from said hotels.

    -Sean

  3. Gamespot Pics... by DiscoOnTheSide · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Those pics from Gamespot of the console case could be slightly fake. They don't look very well made (when was the last time you saw rivets on the outside of you connectors like those USB ports?) and while it does have some impressive video out options, that power plug is INSANE looking. I dunno if I should plug it into it's power cord or if I should plug in my 220v clothes dryer into it. Only time I've seen cables like that was when I was a lighting/sound guy for a concert group at my University.

    Plus I'm thinking this thing will have a DOS/Windows wrapper so you can drop it PC games and have it work...that's why there's so many games on that list that are so old. Hmmm. I still won't buy the piece of shit, I just find it slightly interesting following this thing travel downward in a spiral likened to that of a toilet flushing...

    --
    Viva La Revolucion! Buy a Mac!
  4. Oh Man, Hilarity About to Ensue! by superultra · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I can't wait to see this fly. When I worked at EB, we had problems with customers mixing up the power cable with the A/V cable. They thought the memory card fit into the controller slot. We had one guy who came in to buy a Dreamcast jump pack (generic tremor pack) because he couldn't jump high enough to get a certain part of the game. Did you see the back of the Phantom? Dear God, this'll be great. Obviously, they're going for a more mainstream audience than the PC niche crowd, since those people already have PCs AND broadband AND the patience to install hardware and software and patches. So the question is literally: who's dumb enough to buy this?

    Oh yeah. We "people" may have enough consoles and a powerful PC, but whenver a new console comes out, we always buy it. I forgot.

  5. This is how I see it.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    What if the company goes bankrupt? Does it break then?

    If the company goes bankrupt you dismantle the box and you got yourself a new hd, a geforce fx, an atlhon 3200 and a kick ass sound card for the price of the video card.
    If they can make online games fly, as you said, I'll buy it.