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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.")

4 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. I bet this is how dogs see. by Schezar · · Score: 4, Informative

    This says it best.

    I hate to be one of those people who just posts a link to a relevant comic, but I'm REAL bored at work right now, and I've already read FARK...

    --
    GeekNights!
    Late Night Radio for Geeks!
  2. One giant logic hole in the pricing... by 2Flower · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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...

  3. 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

  4. This only makes me more suspicious of the Phantom by FortissimoWily · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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"...