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Infinium Labs Countersues HardOCP
loftydog writes "Gamespot is reporting that our favorite console manufacturer has thrown down a gauntlet in Florida. Seems they didn't want to play in Texas with HardOCP. Turns out that SCO doesn't have a corner on the lawyer market after all, and we'll see something from Infinium, even if it is an overpaid suit."
...none of this would have happened if Infinium Labs had actually shipped a working product on time. Mudslinging or "legal relief" won't make them ship it quicker either. As far as I can tell, HardOCP has been more than reasonable with its assertions... more sites should have the guts to expose the true colors of the companies they cover.
However exciting the infinium technology allegedly is, I temper any enthusiasm for that product with the reality that they're entering a market full of big boys who don't like to share their toys. Whoever gave them venture money to go head-to-head with Sony, MS, and Nintendo should have their head examined.
Who cares if the product is interoperable, etc. As long as the big guys can sell their consoles below manufacturing cost via lucrative licensing deals, there is NO way that a small startup can compete. IMHO, the right thing to do in this case is Infinium giving what little cash they have left back to the investors and crawling back under the rock they cam from.
This is going to become all the more ridiculous as the 970-based next gen consoles come out. I just don't see a way to outperform that kind of horsepower...
I have to give credit to HardOCP for not backing down in the face of ridiculous threats. They posted a factual article that painted an unflattering picture, because the fact's ARE unflattering. I know Florida is home to some of the worst judicial decions ever but here's hoping they get this one right.
Litigation expense 320,000
Development costs 259,407
I guess this pretty much says it all?
Read the news of the day that goes along with the next comic. Tim Roberts posted this on his forum, then retraceted after a PA reader grabbed a screenshot.
"Actually, that is not what the comic portrayed. It actually meant they were upset that we wouldn't sue them and they ended with outright slander saying that I can only have an orgasm if I kill a dog.... very funny... love it... they want the publicity and traffic driven to there website like is happening to hardocp...
The Penny Arcade guys were nice enough to call us in the beginning and tell us they didn't mean any harm and would be putting us through the gaming console initiation process that all of the past consoles have gone through with the hard core techies.
Tim"
Gabe claims they've never spoken with him.
See for yourself
That's in Rhoad Island, where this suit will not be taking place, and further more the plantiff still must prove that the statement was made with malicious intent. Hardly, "quite possible." Technically possible, theoretically possible, not out of the realm of possibility. Sure.
Further more, there is the matter of being a public entity or figure, which requires a higher standard.
HardOCP has a number of true statements, presented as part of an opinion and asks their readers to draw their own conclusions, to their individual benefit, about a public corporation, and relatively public executives in it. They have this won barring any unforseen changes to our code of laws.
In short, yes, Infinium might win, but NASA also might have faked the moon landings with the help of the guys who faked the faking of the Loch Ness monster and Big Foot to divert people's attention away from their preparing to make OJ Simpson the first human on Mars, while arming him with only a powerbook to combate the vast alien hoards. Their chances are only slightly worse than a Sharpton and Keys joint ticket taking the White House.
The best part about this is Gabe posted alink to the alexa graph comparing both sites.
Infinium's traffic is so low it doesn't show up on the graph except for the days when it was linked to by PA.
If they ever do decide to release the Phantom (not likely), all this negative press is likely to harm sales similar to what happened with the N-Gage.
It seems to me that companies like SCO and Infinium are abusing the American legal system. They are playing silly buggers with the law in order to extract wealth from the economy without actually providing a service or product of value in return.
In the not-so-long run, this is damaging to innovation and fair competition which will in turn damage the economy.
It's probably time for Americans who are aware of the issue to start lobbying for new legislation to target this kind of behaviour - removing the financial rewards and administering punishment to the responsible individuals.
But hey, that's just me... I'm not even an American.
Someone should point out this to KB's Lawyers.
"Infinium leases office space in Sarasota, Florida and Richardson, Texas under operating leases that expire in 2009 and 2007, respectively."
Now which document do we listen to, a court filing or the SEC filing?
In Soviet Russia, Nigel makes plans for you!
I do appreciate that there are issues regarding journalism which must be defended, and it's great that HardOCP is standing up for its rights. But this isn't exactly the Pentagon Papers or 9/11 at stake here. When all is said and done, the only people to have gained anything will be the lawyers.
The Infinium Labs website, under "Special Events", says they were going to be at the Game Developers' Conference this week. I didn't see an Infinium booth there, and they're not on the exhibitor list or the booth map.
Hard OCP actually comes out on top of all of this, in my accounting. They get A: Slashdot traffic several times, B: Penny Arcade traffic several times, and perhaps most importantly C: an iron clad precedent if anybody else tries to muscle them into submission. HardOCP is going to come out of this as a force to be respected.
And for this, they have to hire an intelligent intelligible attorney who can argue that water is wet.
The ______ Agenda
From the Cambridge English Dictionary: phantom [Show phonetics] adjective [before noun] describes something that you imagine exists or that appears to exist, although in fact it does not: Although she had to have her leg amputated, she still feels as though she's got a phantom limb. They discovered it was a phantom organization set up for the processing of drug profits. UK Although she grew bigger and felt ill, she later discovered it was a phantom (US false) pregnancy. I think this aptly describes the Phantom concole. I wonder if Mr. Roberts is aware of the irony. Or did he chose this name for his "phantom" product knowingly, thinking it a good joke to play with other people's money? I just re-read the HardOCP article, and I can see why this guy is suing. He is hoping the threat of legal action will scare us all into quietude, and allow himn to continue parting people from their money with promises of rich rewards to be generated by his revolutionary technology. It reminds me of the old fable: The Emperor's New Clothes. LOL
I got back from the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) last night, this is where us game makers go to learn the latest programming tricks & hardware. This is also where hardware makers go to gather support for their new products. Sony was there recruiting developers for PSP & PS3 as was Microsoft for Xbox 2, video card & peripheral makers show up to try to get people to support their titles, even Nintendo (who tends to snub the developer community) has a small booth. Yet one hardware company getting ready to roll out a major product was conspicuously absent from GDC this year. That's right Infinium was totally & completely missing; this absence really does indicate that this is just a vaporware product designed to scam investors out of their money.
"I just want to know, after all this ranting, is where IS that $100M? If the company is WORTH that, don't they have to have assets that you can sell at $100M?"
No, and that's the magic of the stock market.
Basically, company stock value is a combonation of assets and perceived future earning power. Investors are betting on the hope that the company will be sucessful enough to make their investment return a good profit (raise the stock value).
Many overly ambitious bets on future value is exactly what caused the high tech bubble.