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Phantom Shows Pictures, Pricing, Huang Hire
HawKe writes "Audioholics reports today on details of Infinium Labs' new Phantom Gaming Service which is to be unveiled at this year's E3 in Los Angeles. The service looks to be geared towards a wider demographic rather than the hard core gamer, but for the price of included Phantom hardware (basically free) it appears to be a good compromise - the article explains the PC 'console' is 'free of charge to consumers who sign a two-year contract for a basic subscription to its flagship online gaming service at $29.95 per month. Consumers can also opt to buy this advanced gaming 'receiver' and required accessories without a commitment for $199'." S!: GameDaily also has a feature interviewing Infinium's Kevin Bachus, in which it's confirmed: "Infinium is concerned about protecting its IP and its consumers. To that end, Bachus and Infinium have hired Andrew Huang, the MIT grad student who gained fame for hacking the Xbox."
Phantom Game Receiver(TM)
... no.
* AMD® Athlon(TM) XP 2500+ central processing unit (CPU)
* NVIDIA® GeForce(TM) FX 5700 Ultra graphics processing unit (GPU)
* NVIDIA® nForce(TM)2 Ultra 400 platform processor
* 256 MB RAM
* 40 GB local content cache
* Microsoft® Windows® XP Embedded Operating System
* Dynamic, personalized user interfaces customizable for age, gender or technical expertise
* Lapboard, mouse and game pad included
* HDTV and Dolby Digital 5.1 compatible
* Works any consumer-standard broadband Internet Service Provider (ISP): DSL or faster
This is different from a computer? How? There's nothing that would make me buy this, except for possibly the price. If it's as cheap as a GC I might consider
"Anyways... those pictures look pretty manipulated, can't really say why. The lighting is way the hell too bright for one."
Derr. They had it profesionally photographed. That involves very controlled lighting, plus they cut/paste it out for the page. (Or maybe it's CG.. Not that I can tell, but not beyond the abilities of a relatively talented artist.)
"Who would spend $30 a month for two years to rent a console? Thats $720!"
Doofus, they're not renting the system, they're including it if you subscribe to 2 years of service. It's like getting a cell phone free because you signed a 2 year contract. You're not paying $720 for a console. Actually, if this service provides 1 free game a month, you'd save $20 a month on any of the systems you mentioned, plus the cost of those machines. You'd have an extra $630 in your pocket at the end of the 2 years.
Man, I see why you posted anonymously.
"Derp de derp."
There's always more to the story, and especially in this case. Lawsuits, criminal backgrounds, past failed ventures... it goes on and on. Whereisphantom.com and HardOCP have been leading the investigations into Infinium Labs. If you want to get more than press release information, then you should check out these sites.
It will still need early exclusive content in order to gain the required critical mass to make developers notice it enough to provide dedicated content in the future.
I can't see any reason to sign up for this over buying a PC, it's the same price and much less flexible. By the time the subscription period is up it will be out of date, and the next gen console hardware will be here, spanking it into the middle of next week.
I can't help but think that any parent with half a brain will see it for what it is, a vastly overpriced games console. At least a PC can be used for practical purposes, and is probably cheaper too.
People people people. This is a good thing. Encourage it.
Look at those components. Look at that price. Fairly competitive at retail, especially if you can run non-xp on it. Now look 6 months down the line when the nearest suburban family bought it and the kids got bored with it. Where's the system now? $10 at their garage sale.
Do the math.
Slashdot Patriotism: We Support our Dupes!
Wow. News to me...I have no involvement with the security that will be in the Phantom console that's showing at E3. *sigh* the press has a wonderful way of spreading misinformation at times.