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Infinium Phantom Gets Positive, Negative Spin
aanand writes "Kevin Bacchus, Infinium's PR man and the brains behind the launch of the Xbox, has given a revealing interview with State in which he attempts to lay to rest once and for all the doubts about the Phantom's viability and, indeed, existence. The man himself: 'I built a game console. I know what it takes to do that. It wasn't until I met with the founders of the company as they were interested with bringing me on board that I realised that it was a lot less audacious than it seems on the surface.'" Infinium has also recently announced that they "will be shipping Java technology on its Phantom game receiver when it launches this fall", but with Xbox Live Arcade seeming to duplicate at least some of Phantom's "advanced gaming on demand system" functionality, and muck-raking sites such as 'Where Is Phantom?', billed as "The site for all [Infinium] Critics, Cynics, Detractors and Doubters", nipping at its heels, the company may have its PR work cut out for it.
Exactly. I mean, it's not as if Infineon invented Mini-ITX. Putting off the shelf hardware into a small box isn't a magical feat. It's the infrastructure, that if it existed, would be very impressive. However, since there have been no live demos of the Phantom SERVICE, it's all speculation. I don't know why they thought they could show a plastic box and say "LOOK! IT'S REAL!" when what they're banking on isn't the plastic box at all, but what it will hook up to..
Who is providing the capital for these ventures? There are already 3 major players in this market, which by all accounts is declining pending the release of the next generation. It seems sheer lunacy to bank on a 4th player, even in the hopes of capturing a minor part of the market. Plus, it appears that their release (if it ever happens) will coincide with Xbox 2, PS3, etc. That competition is impossibly stiff. I'm not saying everyone should stay home and never challenge MS, Nintendo and Sony, but you'd better be damned innovative and have some serious marketing tricks and partnerships up your sleeve. I don't think, gee we can play PC games on a TV is going to cut it.. And all this is assuming they actually build the thing.
Muck-raker? I suppose it's true since there's so much muck to go through. Ever since Morley started Where Is Phantom?? and I came on board as co-admin, we've been slogging through the mess that is Infinium Labs. The author in State has an obvious man-crush on Bachus and it shows the marketing PR wizardry that Infinium posesses to cover up their darkness.
Since we've hit our stride in April, we've uncovered so much information on Infinium management that would make any consumer blanche. Just visit our site to see a history of lies, possible perjury, court documents, a web of assumed internet identities, federal convictions, firings, lawsuits, hacking and phreaking, possible drug dealing... it goes on and on. There's no telling how far the rabbit hole goes.
Once you use public documentation to see what these folks have done, are doing and are going to do, how can anyone support them?
Torgo
Admin - Whereisphantom.com