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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."
I have to ask, will Duke Nukem Forever be avalible on it?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
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
Infinium is concerned about protecting its IP and its consumers.
Right... those mod chips have a way of crawling into your home and installing themselves, ruining your valuable data. Better protect the consumers!
so this free console winds up costing me 718 dollars in the long run. Yeah, I'm all over that.
Look whats at the bottom, I mean, how professional is this?
Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements included in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from such statements expressed or implied herein as a result of a variety of factors including, but not limited to: the development of the Infinium Labs technology, the successful marketing and distribution of the Phantom Gaming System, acceptance by the market of Infinium Labs, products and technology, competition and timing of projects and trends in the gaming industry, as well as other factors expressed from time to time in filings Infinium Labs will make with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). As a result, this press release should be read in conjunction with periodic filings Infinium Labs makes with the SEC. The forward looking statements contained herein are made only as of the date of this press release, and Infinium Labs undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.
Anyways... those pictures look pretty manipulated, can't really say why. The lighting is way the hell too bright for one. And also, whats with that ONE cable on the front? First, it looks like it is in a different place in each of the pictures. Also, are they intending to sell a one controller console? I understand its for PC games, but even the XBOX has like 4 controllers.
Now, lets humor the guy for a moment, and ignore the past terrible PR, lack of evidence of a product, bandwidth costs for this guy to stream whole games, etc. Who would spend $30 a month for two years to rent a console? Thats $720! You could buy an XBOX, Gamecube, and PS2 for that price, and still have money for some games.
Let's look at this carefully. Has a consumer product yet emerged which did not work without a service charge, yet was not hacked?
The article mentions that the company is most worried of spoofing identities. Well, they'd better be. If they want the console and service to succeed they must provide one click shopping for games an apps, with either try before you buy, or some sort of 'dissatisfied' cancel in a few hours after purchase return.
This means that once someone has another person's id/password/encrypted key or whatever, then they can purchase games in another's name while having charges applied to the other person.
I believe that within 3 months of wide availability this will be hacked so you can modify the machine without the service knowing, possibly spoofing IDs. Within a year someone will have the service connected to and running on a regular PC.
And, of course, they'll find out that it runs Linux since MS isn't going to license windows to an xbox competitor at low rates. (ie, they'll use windows, but it'll be so expensive that they'll fail financially)
-Adam
The service looks to be geared towards a wider demographic rather than the hard core gamer
Naturally, Infinium has been hyping their pursuit of the easycore (anti-hardcore) because that's supposedly where the money is, or at least according to possible investors. So, just how easycore is the Phantom in comparison to other consoles?
* Requires broadband. Hmm, well, broadband is certainly more proliferated than ever, but in regards to gaming it's still considered an element of the hardcore. I think it's safe to say that Xbox Live is doing well for an online service, but according to most publishers online gameplay is still cutting edge, and therefore hardcore. So, broadband alienates a lot of users. What's more: how many easycore people have a cat5 hookup in their living room? Is the Phantom going to support wireless? Do you see how more involved this is becoming?
* Keyboard and mouse control. I think it's fairly safe to say that the easycore far prefer a controller to a mouse and keyboard. And yet the latest renderings have no controller at all. If a user of the phantom is willing to use a mouse and keyboard to play FPS games, why not play it on their PC? Again, this is not catering to the easycore, the mouse and keyboard is definitively hardcore.
* Price. $30 a month? So, the easycore are already paying $30-50 for broadband. Probably $30-90 for cable/satellite, which I mention because it's an entertainment expense. So why would any easycore person pay $30 just to own the phantom and play freeware games? The Phantom subscription fee does not include the games, which themselves will be $40-50. Xbox Live is what, $60 for 12 months? $30 a month is a hardcore price, perhaps even more so because you really don't get anything for it. Even just paying the $200 means you get a machine that people have not coded specifically for. In other words, a game coded specifically for the Xbox, if done well, looks better than a game coded for a PC of the Phantom's specs for obvious reasons. So, why the Phantom again?
I could go on, but I have better things to do than talk about the Phantom. Feel free to add.
The linguistics used by Infinium that seem to cuddle up to the casual gamer are a farce. There's no centralized design here to that end. Gamecubes are for the casual gamer more than any other console, and there is nothing in here that is Apple or Nintendo-esque. The Phantom is just that, a constantly morphing mismatch of ideas piecemealed together from different people and different gaming idealogies, if you can even call them gaming idealogies. Practically, the Phantom is, judging by their choice of words and marketing, little more than an attempt to raise investor monies. It is not a gaming machine but a perceived cash cow for Infinium.
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.
If you're just hyping a non-existent product, why limit yourself to such boring specs? If you've already given up your link to reality by marketing something that doesn't and won't exist, why not at least make your fantasy exciting?
Geforce FX 5700 Ultra? Why not "32GB 12-Way Tungstamech Neurogrouts bring you entertainment straight out of the Matrix"? Athlon XP? Why not "Vast arrays of processors shifting in and out of different dimensions deliver impossible computing power while tearing at the fabric of space-time"? Online game rentals? Why not "Direct stimulation of your brain's pleasure centers and direct fine-grained control of all matter in the universe"?
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Have you noticed the phantom has so many announcements it looks like they actually WIN money each time they get their name mentioned? Well curious as it sounds THEY DO make money. Phantom is a public investor company so each time you hear anything about the phantom more investors are attracted and flock to Infinium Labs. Investors dont want to hear about games or exactly why the product is any good (hype). They just want to know when it will be out (aproximately) and how much money will they make. And if you check the announcements every single one mentions those two aspects and not a single one detail that would entice a gamer to buy it (it will have great graphics, X game is coming for it) . Makes you wonder doesn't it?
Go ahead MOD my day!
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