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nVidia and Infinium to Partner at CES
JonLatane writes "It seems that nVidia is going to allow Infinium to demonstrate their Phantom "game service" at their CES booth. Since its inception, Infinium has proven to be rather belligerent about its product and will probably stay in court for a long time."
They probably won't take up much space.
There is no "partnership." Total anti-NVIDIA BS some sites are putting on this. The fact of the matter is that IL is a customer of NVIDIA, as the machine has an FX 5600 in it. It also runs WinXP Embedded, so it's being demo'd at the MS booth as well as they announced a while ago (PDF).
Sweet another gaming console that has absolutely no games to back it.
f lash.20041028.1.html
We'll see what Sun can pull out of it's ass
http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2004-10/sun
Phantom, the rumors, etc, this IS the game. Just look at all the entertainment we've gotten out of it. You'll go buy the console and open up the box and there will be a nice note thanking you for playing.
God, finally.
In other news, Infinium Labs' stock tumbled 11% today.
PimpMyMazda.com - Crazy mods to a 2002 Mazda Protege DX.
They must either have no idea how despised this company is, or Infinium has pictures of them hucking kittens. Either way...
Go ahead and call me unreliable; reliable is just a synonym for predictable.
client.
This is just a case of a vendor allowing a client to do some free advertisement for them, even if the thing is vaporhardware.
All your base are belong to Google.
News on the Phantom? I guess its killer game will be Duke Nukem Forever.
MOUNT TAPE U1439 ON B3, NO RING
They have burned so many bridges and screwed so many people. I am one of those people... I am sure nVidia had nothing to do with that press release, otherwise they would have made a release as well. nVidia will let most large customers or game developers with a some-what known product have space in thier CES booth. Maybe Infinium will sue me for posting this ;)
Wow. Infinium Labs sure employs the creme de la creme.... You sure about that, Kev-boy?
Just like everyone else, I have read about this system and laughed at all the jokes we have had at its expense. I have to ask, though, what benefit does this company get out of constantly hyping this seemingly nonexistant product? Is it that they had some idea that they boasted about before realizing it's not quite so easy to just build a new gaming system, or is it that this is some bizarre, ass-backwards means of getting publicity for future products? I agree, though, with an above poster. The fun seems to be in watching this company constantly hype a phantom product (pun most definitely intended) and making jokes about it.
My other computer is a Jacquard loom.
You know, at first I was all like "What?! This is a bad idea nVidia; what are you thinking?" like a concerned parent....
But then I realized you know it's probably okay cause Infinium probably won't even show up.... so
Far be it from me to call B.S. on something before having seen it, but lately hardware manufacturers seem to be relying more and more on "Press Releases" and benchamrks to garner attention, and thus investor money rather than truly innovating as was the norm only a few years back. Tom's hardware got sick of pandering to the hardware companies claims and said they were going to put an end to it.
x .html
http://www4.tomshardware.com/column/20041011/inde
This reeks of a venture capital marketing strategy to me, but I suppose once the show is over and we see what they have to offer, I might change my mind. At the moment though this press release seems more hype than anything else judging from past experience with Infinium.
Reading the article, it seems that Venture Capitalists have given this company $25M without a product, business plan, or even a physical place of business.
The '90s are BACK, baby!!!
So there is a shitload of games to back it.
Have you metaroderated recently?
it will be terribly out of date and won't be able to play any of the games you want it to play such as Half-Life 2. Expect to see another "classics" console as game developers just need to give permission for the games to go on there what with it being Windows XP and all. But does it run Linux?
Have you metaroderated recently?
From dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=phantom phantom also fantom Audio pronunciation of "phantom" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (fntm) n. Something apparently seen, heard, or sensed, but having no physical reality; a ghost or an apparition. Something elusive or delusive. An image that appears only in the mind; an illusion. Something dreaded or despised.
Have you metaroderated recently?
ATI has announced that Infinium will cancel the product and declare bankruptcy at the ATI booth the day later.
My home PC that I spent 1000 on and carefully self customized and tweaked will still beat the pants off of this "phantom" if it ever comes around. Idiots, leave M$ to their XBOX peddling, at least mods for the 'Box are easy to install.
it doesn't end up becoming a phantom menace.
I dont care what people say, the Infinium and the Phantom console will be a household name in a year. Kind of in the same way Enron was.
"A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes." -Mahatma Gandhi
I think the real question is, why is Microsoft and nVidia giving his thing any free press? Or, why is MS and nV giving up booth space at CES? If and when this thing ever comes out, it has all the earmarks of being an XBOX competitor? Perhaps they are thinking buyout, but of what; Does infinium own any patents? And, are they concerned about the well known flap between Infinium and [H]ardOCP.
r/dcviper
Ummm, err, say what, now?
From the Yahoo article:
The Phantom Game Service will be delivered over broadband to a Windows XP Embedded-based receiver that sits with other devices in the room where family members go for entertainment.
Nearly two dozen leading game publishers have committed to provide content for the Phantom Game Service, including Atari, Codemasters, Eidos and Vivendi Universal.
Show attendees can also see Phantom in the Microsoft Corp. booth in the Central Hall, No. 7145.
Whatever they've got, they've managed to get whatever a "commitment" is worth out of some pretty solid game publishers as well as space in NVIDIA and Microsoft booths at the show. It also looks like they're letting game publishers cut a lot of middle-men out of the way (except for the publisher, of course (like Valve didn't do)) by putting games over broadband. They've got that going for them at least. Before Half-Life 2 went out over Steam this was never on such a scale before.
Plus they've already managed to sue a few people which shows they've got some dice. They'll get along really pretty with the likes of that crowd. Unfortunately though, I remember when it was first announced, and I remember Linux being mentioned. Now it'll sit in a MS booth which may be awesome for them but is a little tragic for everyone who hoped getting a Linux console out there would lead to better Linux game support.
Direct away from face when opening.
hey guys. im from infinium labs. you're f***ed. our product is gonna be so cool, its gonna be a revolution in gaming. its gonna allow you to play computer games, ON YOUR TV. aka, dvi/vga to rca converter.
No underpants gnome joke this time, since it actually works:
1. Make up "revolutionary" product.
2. Wait for venture capitalists to take a risk on your company and then continue to syphon money with corp-u-speak and plain old lies.
3. Profit!
You buy company A's stuff, and they aren't going to mind if you get up on the soapbox and show off the product. ;)
All your base are belong to Google.
lol, what?
Sun Microsofts confirmed they are partnering on a new game channel with Infinium. Kevin Bachus who launched the Xbox is the President of Infinium Labs. Nvidia is working with Infinium to demo the product at CES at their booth.
Doesn't sound or act like vaporware.
"Source: Infinium Labs"
And for $399, you too can have your custom press releases sent to the likes of Yahoo, MSN, and the National Enquirer!
A sig is just a sig, unless you can shoot it. Sig Steyr, for the distinguishing CT.
NVIDIA, of all companies, should know if this thing is real or not. If they filled an order for a ton of GPU's and such for Infinium, they'd have reason to believe the aptly named "Phantom" is real. Or maybe, they like everyone else here, seems to think it doesn't exist, and is taking an opportunity to publically call out Infinium and prove it.
Only the purest of souls seek enlightenment. Everyone else just wants power.
Phantom, I get it. I finally get it. hahahaha
The Phantom Game Service will be delivered over broadband to a Windows XP Embedded-based receiver that sits with other devices in the room where family members go for entertainment.
I have seen a video demonstrating the latest products from "Redmond's finest" and that sounds a lot like Windows Media Center edition.
Of course, if the device needs Windows MCE in order to operate, Microsoft also has to be there to show up their product to the public.
If this is correct, the phantom will only work if windows mce works, but that's just a theory.
Just my $0.02
I wish my stock (AVN) would split that often for no good reason. AVN gets good news from successful drug trials and barely budges.
Infinium looks like it might be good for day trading if you have money to throw away. When the stock is trading under $1 and losing money it's a really bad sign. It's also "over the counter" which means it's not actually being traded on the major markets.
I would need really good positive information before putting anything on it. At this point it's pure gambling since the value of the stock is based purely on investors and not on any sort of product and consumer market value. There's no product for people to buy to raise the value of the stock. The only product is the stock itself.
Work Safe Porn
nVidia doesn't really have anything to lose from this. Something that doesn't exist doesn't take up very much booth space at all.
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
It's one thing to sell your product broadly.
It's another thing to ACTIVELY PROMOTE this type of company by putting them in your trade show booth.
These companies can do better.
Send a little note:
We don't care who you sell your product too, but don't actively promote scum like infinium.
Who's side are you on? The nice guys, or the litigation prone?
Mention the Nvidia CES booth.
I'm including some address below.
Carrie Cowan
Consumer/Games/Partner PR Manager
ccowan@nvidia.com
+1 (408) 486 7330
Brian Burke
Desktop PR Manager
bburke@nvidia.com
+1 (512) 401 4385
Bryan Del Rizzo
Platform Products PR Manager
bdelrizzo@nvidia.com
+1 (408) 486 2772
Infinium is the company that is suing an enthusiest site and its operator personally for $20,000,000 for providing what appears to be basically accurate information about its products.[1]
The gaming / enthusiest market is a core market for Nvidia. Not only does Nvidia have to wake up in the morning knowing they are supporting a litigation prone (and otherwise apparently unsuccesful) company (infinium), but they also have to live with the business decision of actively supporting a company that is engaged in litigation with the very folks who buy and promote their product! And that the litigation appears to be pretty unjustified.
[1]
PLEASE READ THE LINKS IN THE ARTICLE AND REACH YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS. THESE ARE SIMPLY OPINIONS BASED ON A QUICK REVIEW OF THE LINKED MATERIAL.
Infinium's business plan:
1. Profit!
2. ???
3. Bankruptcy
here's a follow up press release:. html
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/041230/305038_1
i wonder what "xbox creator" exaclty means here.
Bram Stolk http://stolk.org/tlctc/
"Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)"
Kumquat Kum"quat, n. Chin. kin keu. (Bot.)
A small tree of the genus Citrus (C. Japonica)
growing in China and Japan; also, its small acid,
orange-colored fruit used for preserves.
You say Tom's Hardware complains of exaggerated claims, and false companies with fake products.
That's not what that article says. That article merely complains that Tom's Hardware isn't getting sufficient advance notice of new releases. In other words, Tom's Hardware isn't getting advance notice so they can post their review and get your clicks before someone else reads about them on an actual news site.
This isn't about principles or crazy claims. It's about money, pure and simple. Tom's Hardware wants to be your news source and thus have you view their ads, and constant leaks are making that something NVidia and ATI can no longer guarantee.
Wouldn't really matter. To repeat a rehash of an old joke:
Q:"What do you get when you cross Microsoft and Sun?"
A:"Microsoft."
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
Surely I can't be the only one here who was employed at dot-coms during the height of the vulture capital. Am I the only one who's noticed the huge shift in the 'underlying business model', such as it is? This is never a good sign.
We all certainly saw companies who talked about the great things they were going to do, took their sweet time not doing them, then abruptly announced that when the great things happened, they were going to be _totally different_, _even better_ things. This always used to mean that the upper management was stalling for time, either to suck more money out of the vultures or to locate a group of even dumber idiots to buy them out. Was there a rules change that I missed?
Prediction: No product, service, concept, teakettle, weapons system or other potential interpretation of the "Phantom This Week's Catchphrase" will ever be released. A lot of vulture money will be pissed away on amazingly stupid things. It'll all end in a welter of lawsuits, most of which will end only when there's no more money for the lawyers to get.
They found the missing step!
1. Steal underwear
2. Follow Infinum Labs Scheme
3. Profit!
GENIUS!
Will he be there? And if so, will we see him achieve orgasm after he kills a dog?
You must think in Russian.
W00t! More stories about games! Fucking LOSERS, get a FUCKING LIFE and stop playing GAMES!
Makes alot more sense to me. Not so much smoke and mirrors as smokey, hot air.
My other OS is also FreeBSD
Surely you know by now that being a 'start-up' business in the US is strictly forbidden by law and the USPTO?
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Nvidia will design a special graphics chip for the Phantom console, and it will be named Nvidia VX 666 Phantom edition (V as in Vaporware).
I get the feeling they just want to spite HardOCP, so they've decided to really go for it. If not for all the negative exposure, they probably would have skipped out with the investor money a long time ago.
Now it's personal.
Nvidia doesn't really have anything to lose from this anyway. Industry insiders already know that the Infinium box is not likely to see the light of day much less be successful. While the general public and the less informed are not even aware of the Phantom or all of the controversy surrounding it. So as long as the demos themselves don't suck, Nvidia and MS won't mind. I would assume that putting together a decent demo is much easier than launching a successful product!
You know, if the Infinium debacle plays true to form, someday any and all things Infinium might fetch a nice sum on eBay!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Since its inception, Infinium has proven to be rather belligerent about its product and will probably stay in court for a long time.
Or maybe not such a long time. Infinium lost.
But seriously, why is Slashdot giving these guys continual press coverage?
And it'll be worth more than the Phantom.
This thing has a Geforce 5600 in it, and it downloads the game as you play it. It will completely bomb at release, and the only guy that will end up winning is the "CEO". He's made something like $10 million off the investors.
This thing will tank like those Divx players at Circuit City tanked. You could give one as a birthday present, and the receipent would act the same as if you had sqat down and pinched a loaf in the box and wrapped that.
This is what is so awesome about marketing. Investor beware.
Wasn't Phantom supposed to be in stores November 14th or so?
Yet they are only going to demo it at CES?
So, am I the only one who saw this being demoed on an episode of The Screen Savers last year? If I'm not mistaken it was at last year's CES. I was quite a non-believer when I first read about it, but after seeing it, I'm hopeful.
My question is; Why hasn't the FBI thrown the Infinium bunch in prison by now??! How many laws have they broken? If all this is public knowledge why is Infinium allowed to continue, now with the stock scam, Infinium will end up costing the court system millions, can soemome please step in and just take this company out already!! There is obvious fraud going on at many levels, and all of them at a GRAND scale!
I saw the Phantom at their booth at E3. They had a couple of consoles set up, and the one I was looking at was running UT2k4.
Unfortunately for their credibility, the console froze after a few minutes (not a BSoD, but the picture locked up and the console didn't respond to keyboard input). The guy that was demonstrating couldn't get it running again, so had to go for help...
So they couldn't even play the game on their schmancy console, which should the easy part - any commodity PC would do that (possibly at shitty framerates, but that's a separate question). If they can't do that, how are we supposed to believe that they've made any progress on the technically challenging part of their business model? Online fulfillment of games with some serious DRM wrapped around them to make sure that people have to keep paying their subwscription fees - that's not easy. In fact, it's even more complex than what Valve has done with Steam because it has to work with 3rd party products and Infinium (unlike Valve) certainly isn't in a position to get publishers to change code so their games will work better with the Phantom's distribution technology.
In a nutshell - they're screwed, but I certainly have enjoyed watching them flame out and spin into their death spiral.
I happen to live in Sarasota FL, less than 2 miles from the building where Infinium Labs has its main office. A while back (around the time the whole H-OCP vs Infinium thing started) I went by the building with my camera and snapped some pics.
Details:
The office is located on the 3rd floor of the Center Pointe building, which is in central Sarasota, not far from downtown (located at the corner of US 301 and Main St.).
Trivia item: the law firm that Infinium Labs uses takes up the top 2 floors of this building. Kinda convenient eh ? (see inf4.jpg) Not shown: the big glow in the dark/changes color sign that is on the top west side of the building. Said sign cost US$ 300,000 according to rumor.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/mreboy/inf1.jpg
filenames are inf1.jpg through inf8.jpg, each about 300k / 1280x960.
MRE
http://www.slagg.org - LAN Gaming in Sarasota FL, USA
Tim -
t imr.tv/
"Even before I completed high school, I learned computer programming and networking at the helm of a Commodore 64 and Apple IIE. Long before the Internet existed, I was one of the pioneers of "networking" via computer (BBS) bulletin boards and the Arpanet, precursor to the World Wide Web. In the days "where wizards stayed up late," I was chatting via computer connection with other Internet pioneers and helping to further develop what we now know as the Internet."
http://web.archive.org/web/20011202160019/http://
Peter -
"Before Peter completed junior high school in the early 1980's, he learned computer programming and networking at the helm of a Commodore 64 and Apple IIE. He was one of the pioneers of "networking" via computer (BBS) bulletin boards and the Arpanet, precursor to the World Wide Web. In the days "where wizards stayed up late," he was chatting via computer connection with other Internet pioneers and helping to further develop what we now know as the Internet."
http://www.wanforce.com/worldwide_team.asp/
I'm pretty sure that joke has happened before.
The results are in sooner then I expected.
.. or an unfair business practice, trade disparagement, trade libel ...".
Here is the copy of the legal document where Infinium admits that the article "does not constitute unfair competition under
I want to be crystal clear here. Fondue commented "Well, it's not exactly ambiguous that Infinium were libelled [sic] - it should be obvious to all but the most credulous observer...". Fondue is flat out wrong.
The rest of their rant is similarly misguided.
Meta-Moderator.