Phantom Console May Never Materialize

CNN Money's excellent column Game On is running a piece discussing the conspicuous absence of the Phantom console from this year's E3. The service-based system which was to allow download and purchase of games via a living-room unit has been the subject of dubious press coverage and general mistrust, all of which appears to have been well deserved. From the article: "The company believes, based on past performance, that there is a high likelihood that sufficient capital will not be available ... and many or all of these milestones will be missed and the launch date will again shift and/or the company will go out of business..."

Comments

Phantom Console

[robpoe]

Downloads games? Wow. Does it come with a free 10g fiber connection to the house?

With the console games getting as fat as they've been (i.e. full DVD media) how in the hell do you expect people to download that much material (for one) and since it's not on a copy protected media, how would you trust that someone wouldn't just copy if off the local HD and play it for free?

And dont tell me about subscription unlocks and stuff. If they've figured out how to mod an XBox to play pir..err..copie...err.. BACKED UP games, hacked Windows XP to not need activation, hacked DirecTV / Dish / Cable / whatever, then surely whatever "authentication scheme" they choose will be broken, too.....

Re:Phantom Console

[KillShill]

a better analogy would be renting the game.

since you never actually "own" the game, you essentially rent the game for a one time fee. they can revoke your right to use the game at their discretion at any time for any reason.

what a wonderful model upon to base all future game publishing.

i for one am willing to be handcuffed and ask permission to play games i ...buy..er rent.

getting rid of the middleman (publishers) has always been a good thing... but not if you replace it with developer handcuffs. i don't want to hear excuses about why it's necessary or that "it's in my best interest" etc...

if i don't control it, someone else does.

i'm sure it's only a matter of time before consoles completely go this route too... i mean afterall, why give those darn thieving pirates who pay 50 bucks a game, a copy of our precious "intellectual property" on a plastic disc.

Re:Phantom Console

[Lisandro]

Huh? No flame intended, but the only reason Steam is sucessful it's because it carried Half-Life 2 - one of the most anticipated games in history.

What else is available through it? HL1? Assorted mods? When Steam grows a respectable games catalogue, we'll know if it's a sucess or not. Not likely to happen either, unless Valve starts publishing new games on their own - other companies are more likely to create their own Steam rather than going through Valve. That'd be nice, having to use 10 different online buying/activation programs for games...

Re:Well duh!

[Pxtl]

I'm quite happy it didn't come out - it means that
a) Darwin is doing his work on it's investors and
b) there would have been something desperately wrong with a world where Phantom is released and Indrema is canned.

So?

[Locke2005]

Even if it did come out, what were its chances of competing against the PS3, Xbox360, and Nintendo Revolultion?

Junk faxing for stock

[rigorist]

Infinium Labs had to engage in illegal junk-faxing for a pump 'n' dump stock scheme earlier this year.

If the company is that far down the tubes, there's not much hope of it ever producing a product.

Nintendo Revolution

[aardwolf64]

Is it any wonder that Phantom disappeared, given what Nintendo is doing with Revolution?

From the linked page:

"Perhaps most surprising, the Revolution will give players access to Nintendo's back catalog of games. That's right: you'll be able to download classic titles for the Nintendo 64, Super NES, and original NES systems -- in addition to playing your library of GameCube titles."

LOL

[SatanicPuppy]

5:30 on a friday...It almost seemed rational to me.

hmmm

[nomadic]

You know, I kind of wish it did come out and was just a phenomenal platform, just to see slashdotters' response. Though the people who trashed the Xbox didn't really say much after it came out and turned to be a decent system...

Yes, I know this is different, yes I'm aware that Infinium is a very dodgy company and the chances of a working living breathing console coming from them are very very remote.

BUT. In SEC filings companies are required by law to give worst-case scenarios for their business. The original article was somewhat dishonest in portraying this as anything major regarding the Phantom. It doesn't matter how successful the company, if they're registering with the SEC they will have to say things that can go wrong.

Re:Talk About Freaking Shady

[Skuld-Chan]

Actually they suceeded at spending millions of dollars without doing anything - who's the real fools here?

The investors - thats who.