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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..."
A better analogy would be the success of Valve software's Steam service. It has essentially made the buy, download, play model viable. Add a hardware scheme around it and its even more protected. Speed? so you wait a few days for the download, if it allows the user to demo the game or obtain a rare game they would otherwise have to wait for anyway, why the hex not?