Slashdot Mirror
Infinium May Have Content Partners
eToychest writes "In a move that indicates the video game industry is embracing digital distribution as a vehicle to expand the market, more than 20 game publishers have signed on to supply titles for the Phantom Game Service." Their previously reported financial status is undoubtedly still an issue, though.
The article mentions 500 titles, including 1/2 of the top 50 PC games ever. In other words, at least some of these are not brand-new games. My question at this point would be, why would I want to pay for a crippled PC that requires a monthly service, just to bring me retreads of old games? Do we at least get to keep the content, or does it disappear if we don't pay the bill? At least the XBox has new titles, and I don't have to pay any monthly fee unless I want XBox Live. I'll probably buy an XBox soon enough so I can chip it for use as an extra, Replay-streaming media center, but I haven't rushed to buy it, yet.
Get off my launchpad!
Anyone play Q3A on a console? Exactly, it begs for a keyboard and mouse. Now, at 640x480, I think most games would run just fine on a pc->console conversion.
I don't know why everyone keeps dissing on Infinium, it takes time to get a startup going, and lots of money. They keep working at it, getting content providers, getting the prototype working, games working on it, problems solved, closer to launch.
And still, you give them no credit. These guys are not SCO or Microsoft, we shouldnt be treating this startup like criminals.
I personally think its a great idea, bringing the PC into the living room. Same thing Microsoft is trying to do with its home PC boxes.
When you get a PC in the living room, the choices are endless on what you can do, all types of entertainment media and communications.
Just imagine if people told Linus, stop it, Minix is all we need.
We are a society that builds on other peoples work, even if they fail, our society grows on experience. Glad there are people still trying after the whole dotbomb days. Make it or not, this is a interesting idea.
I still have reservations paying a monthly charge to 'rent games' regardless of how many publishers or titles they have signed on. And I own seven Porche GT3's, each a different color. But only on the Internet.
If Microsoft nixes the Xbox (are they still losing money on hardware / Xbox overall?) tomorrow, I can still drop discs in and play them next week. If I lose my broadband or (gasp!) move to an area without high-speed internet, I can still use my Xbox. My Xbox can't be remotely hacked, DOS'd, and won't need monthly security patches.
It's not time for a "on demand" content model yet.
"Being a gamer, there is no two ways about it," says Dale Eldridge, Vice President of Infinium Labs. "You'll have CDs that get scratched that will no longer work and you have to front the cost to buy the same game multiple times. And you buy a system, the developer upgrades it, you can't play the game you have before on the same proprietary console, and then your little cheap $200 consumer item breaks because it is only a toy. The most frustrating is the titles only appeal to the 8-18 year olds and don't offer the genres and title selection which appeals to the 3-38 year olds which is 80% of the market today. It's frustrating. So what we've designed is a real machine with a hassle free service allowing you a infinite selection of gaming content. You no longer have to spend your time as an IT person. It can be in your living room, it can be easy to use, it is built for the hardcore horsepower driven gamer, it can appeal to all audiences, it can be convenient, and it can be FUN!'"
One of the interesting things, Tim Roberts (CEO and founder) noted is that other consoles are just PC's with Proprietary Operating Systems which actually raise the cost of games, since they have to be re-written to adapt to these consoles. He also stated that the proprietary consoles have "built themselves into a box"; this means that they have to purchase huge volumes of parts in order to achieve the economies of scale. This also ties them into the same technology for 5 years since they have produced tied up enormous amounts of there cash and don't want to obsolete themselves.
Roberts explained that the Beta tester requests were very successful. With over 28k applications on file to date we have collected some very resourceful testers which can help fine tune our product. We are planning on distributing emails to the 300 lucky testers on Sept 15th which will announce who has been selected. We will then shift gears and open beta tester requests for Europe, Asia, Mexico and Australia, as well as others. We are looking for the best, the elite hard core gamers and also the top hackers and crackers out there. We will be sending the United States and Canada beta testers consoles to them on Sept 15th. The beta testers will need to sign an agreement to provide 1 year worth of testing for us and commit to provide feed back to us regarding the service. They will be allowed to keep the equipment and games but will have to pay there own broadband access fees. We will be looking for 300 testers in each country, not just the United States and Canada.
We plan to launch our service in Europe and Asia in Q1 2005.
Unlike the other current-generation systems on the market today, all costing under 200 bucks, the Phantom looks to do something that no other video gaming console has done before. The Phantom is the most robust, upgradeable console which provides a better entertainment package and will drive down the cost of games to the consumers.
"The consumer who enters the market earlier is obviously going to pay the price," says Roberts. "The people who bought the first generation of Tivo ended up having to pay a little more. And there are going to be people who will wait thinking that second generation product will be cheaper, faster and better. But our console is upgradeable, provides a refurbish program and also there are people who are willing to come in early and adopt the product and help launch our service. As we build our subscriber base, the consumer monthly service fee goes down offset by our economies of scale. But the most dramatic change to that is when the advertising revenue is achieved; consumers are predicted to spend 7 times mo
AdsJunction.com Ad Network