Too Good To Be True

[mtxblau]

Empty promises? Or the future giant in video gaming? I, for one, am intrigued.

Infinium Labs: The Phantom

Infinium Labs announces that it's planning to develop and market a powerful new game console in time for a release later this year.

Tampa Bay-based Infinium Labs has today announced that it will release its Phantom game console in North America by November this year. According to today's press release, the new console will outperform all of those currently on the market and will be easy for children to use despite being so advanced that it will exceed the needs of hard-core gamers.

Although it has not actually been confirmed, the fact that Infinium has stated that more than 33,000 games are already available for the console suggests that the Phantom will be able to play games designed for the PC and, perhaps, for certain game consoles. No specifications for the machine have been released at this time, but Infinium describes it as an "always on broadband device," and listed among its key features are:

Cross platform capabilities

Online connectivity for multiplayer gaming

Seamless upgrades and patch management

Demo games before purchasing or subscribing

Games on demand

Game rentals

Infinium Labs has stated that it hopes to unveil the Phantom console sometime in March, perhaps at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Jose. We'll bring you more information on the Phantom as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime, you might like to check out the Infinium Labs Web site.

 

[Taelon]

Intriguing. Now if they only come forward with more facts and not just pretty pictures on the website.

AND, they gotta lose that voice.... damn.... I had Winamp playing an MP3 file when I visited their site.... and this guy starts talking during the music, and I'm thinking WTF.... I never noticed him before... and he just kept on and I finally realized he was NOT supposed to be in the song, and then it dawned on me he was part of the webpage.... bozos...LOL....

 

[Gallstaff]

Ok, is there any reason why on any part of gamespot, all their pictures come up as little x's. It's been this way for months and I'm sick of it. How can I fix this?

EDIT: Also, this thing sounds A LOT like those game and movie things you get and some hotels you know those? You can buy however many hours of gaming on the little TV thing. Hmmm but fate history tells me this thing is gonna follow the path of our beloved 3DO.

 

[MasterAkumaMatata]

Wow, it looks bigger than the almighty XBox.

http://superakuma5k.homestead.com/files/sx/phantom2.jpg','Phantom','470','500','0','0','0','0')]

[/url]

 

[Sundance]

Here is what Intel is classifying them as, for what it is worth.

Looks like the Infinium Labs webpage is down too.

 

[klakalou]

i think its gonna crash and burn and prolly never release.

 

[Myname]

I noticed on the MAME message boards the other week that someone posted asking if there would be any interest in a console they were thinking about developing purely for emulation. Unfortunately I can't find the post now or remember anything more about it.. Perhaps the two things could be related?

 

[Taelon]

If games were movies...

CONSOLE WARS - Classic Trilogy

Episode 4 - A Short-Lived Hope

Episode 5 - Sony Strikes Back

Episode 6 - Return Of The Dreamcast

And the first of the new prequels:

Episode 1 - The PHANTOM Menace

Episode 2 - Attack Of The Gameboys

 

[Gallstaff]

God this thing will suck... am I the only one who thinks this will be one of the biggest flops since the virutal boy?

 

[googlefest1]

this thing cant be real

a profesional web site yes but comon

50000 games?

cross platfom?

no specs

no real pic - and the thing is comming out in march ? they should have had engineering prototypes half a year ago with pics - a press release now - that should have been last year

i think this is fake - someones class project for a web site

edit: i took a closer look i dont know what to think mabey it is for real but still something smells about it to me -- ill have to wait for that feburary 27 th date

 

[ratfish]

either it's totally fake like goglefest said, or their marketing team is made up of chimpanzees (like those monkeys they use on tv commercials

)

i really hope it's a flop (99% sure flop)

i just hope it doesn't bring about the second comming, that dreaded day of the next "video game crash" that especially Nintendo fears

 

[mtxblau]

Originally posted by SegaFreak@Jan. 22 2003, 3:06 am

i really hope it's a flop (99% sure flop)

Well that's stupid. It's not microsoft, so what's the rationale for this nonsense? Because it's not Nintendo? Or Sega? or *gasp* Sony?

I'm not going to pass any judgements on the system. This could be an outstanding system if it comes to fruition, or it might not... Whether or not it does, that's anyone's guess - but I'm not going to make inferences on the life and longevity of a system on the basis of one press release.

 

[g8crapachino]

Here's a sure sign that it's a fake...

Quote from the site "There are currently 32,679 retail game titles available and 418 shareware game titles and this does not include; adult, casino, sequels and new releases in past 6 months"

...for a console that hasn't been released yet and nobody knew about, how could it possible have that many titles?

 

[antime]

Because it's a boxed PC?

 

[Curtis]

I vaguely remember rumors of a fouth console back when the Xbox was just a press release. IIRC it was supposedly meant to be a linux based unit, but nothing came of it. The name "Infinium Labs" is ringing some bells, but I can't say for sure it has anything to do with this Phantom thingy.

 

[antime]

You probably mean the Indrema.

 

[Curtis]

Ah yes...I knew it started with an "I".

I guess that means that this new "Phantom" is likely just a crappy cyrix-on-a-mobo type set-top box for the masses with nothing new to offer the consumer. The whole "buy your games online" concept is flawed in my mind, because you don't get something tangible out of it. Half the fun in games playing is actually recieving a box with pretty artwork - at least it gives you something to throw across the room when you realise the game sucks (or you do).

 

[AntiPasta]

Cewl. I think I'm gonna apply for a dev licence

 

[mtxblau]

Originally posted by Curtis@Jan. 22 2003, 9:13 am

I guess that means that this new "Phantom" is likely just a crappy cyrix-on-a-mobo type set-top box for the masses with nothing new to offer the consumer. The whole "buy your games online" concept is flawed in my mind, because you don't get something tangible out of it. Half the fun in games playing is actually recieving a box with pretty artwork - at least it gives you something to throw across the room when you realise the game sucks (or you do).

Based on the press release, it is supposedly faster than everything currently available on the market, including the Xbox. Now, I realize that means they could be comparing pure megahertz, and a Via C3 system at top speed would be 900Mhz (w/o being o'ced) and technically 'faster' than the Xbox. However, for this 'Phantom' to even have the remote possibility of selling, I doub't they'd shoot themselves in the foot right out the gate.

I really think it's a PC with hardware implemented emulation. From the site they claim it's open source, so it's probably a Linux derivative, with a bunch of nifty emulators, i.e. Mame.

Furthermore, if there's to be any sort of success, and if it is claiming PC gaming capability (which is the only reasonable way to provide those numbers), it has to work with games you already own - otherwise you'd simply be paying twice for a game, and that is definitely not going to motivate people to buy a system.

Part of my rationality is that in the already crowded market, Infinium Labs has to be thinking they have something to offer, otherwise they're just going to get crushed. They have no name recognition or prior history - and if they're banking on an online gaming, they might as well stop now.

I guess we wait until March to see what exactly they're planning. I won't deny that I'm intrigued, and that if it's a good idea and properly implemented I will back it, but if it's otherwise, well, I'll admit that I wasted everyone's time by posting it.

 

[antime]

Originally posted by MTXBlau@Jan. 23 2003, 11:20 pm

I really think it's a PC with hardware implemented emulation. From the site they claim it's open source, so it's probably a Linux derivative, with a bunch of nifty emulators, i.e. Mame.

If they really plan to market themselves through emulators, how long do you think it'll take before they're litigated into oblivion? Not that they won't have more than their fair share of lawsuits anyway, unless they really have bought distribution rights to all those 33000 titles they're boasting.

In other news, Nintendo plan on releasing a Gamecube successor in 2005.