Infinium's Phantom - we all doubted..

[Spatial]

..but it is real and in operation at E3



Looks like my George Foreman grill



Looks like those low end controllers from Argos



Does anyone else find it worrying that they've highlighted the keys you have to use ? PC Gaming for thickies ?

And is that a mouse under there ? I hope thats not stuck in place or that'll get uncomfortable quickly.

All in all this strange beast just got stranger.

Here's the press release :-

"Infinium Labs has announced details of the hardware in its Phantom game console, which has been publicly unveiled for the first time at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles and is set to launch by the end of the year.

The "game receiver," which downloads games from a broadband Internet connection onto an internal 40gb hard disc and has no ports for external media such as CDs, DVDs or memory cards, is set to use components from AMD and NVIDIA in its design.

An AMD Athlon 2500+ processor will lie at the heart of the system, along with an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra graphics chipset, with 128mb of on-board graphics RAM - making the Phantom into a PC system just slightly behind the current cutting edge specification.

It's certainly enough power to run key upcoming games such as Half-Life 2 and Doom III with good graphical quality and framerate, and should allow the system to continue to play high-end PC games for at least a couple of years.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that Infinium plans to give away the Phantom for free to people who sign up to the Phantom Game Service content delivery system, which is expected to cost around $30 per month when it launches this November in the United States."

I still keep expecting them to go "haha its all a big joke"

[Razz]

ROFL

[gooner]

this is deffo one for the hardcore collector

[Sarkster]

this business model cant work, can it?

I mean, there doesnt seem to be any way of inserting media into the machine in adition to the DL content onto the HDD. personally speaking, I like to own an actual disc and case and instructions.

[Typhoon Thompson]

That controller is truly awful.

[Chadruharazzeb]

Just what is the point?

[The Mole]

And i thought the Xbox controler was badly designed.

[AllYourBase]

Am I the only one who thinks this is going to revolutionize the way we play games? Watch out SONY!!!111

[hankwangford]

$30 multiplied by 12 = $360. Nice price for a console...</sarcasm>

[djjimbob]

They sure don't know how to write a press release:

"...which makes just a bit ****ter than everything else out there..."

Gun + Foot = Hurt

[mastercom4]

what actually is this console suppose to do?

[Dirty Sanchez]

Guys, let me drop a few facts into the mix and see where we might be going.....

1. A Box with no other input other than Broadband for content.
2. A Box with a 40GB drive.
3. A Box capable of playing games.
4. A Box that requires you to pay around ?16 a month to use its features.

OK.

Now take a look at the Sky+ Box from Sky
1. A straight match, broadband over satellite is a no brainer, Sky boxes are being trialed at the moment to take a true broadband feed
2. A straight match
3. A straight match, Sky already charges 50p to download and play games on the Box, control pads are available too.
4. Sky+ subs, which only gives you the option of recording, is ?10 a month

Doesn't sound so daft now does it?

I'm not saying this is a perfect model but it doesn't need a rocket scientist to work out that it's a very small step for Sky to make.

[Inertia_]

The glossy white and black Chris Cunningham-esque colour scheme looks quite fetching. Shame it's been applied to an ill-conceived bag of bollocks.

[mid]

The glossy white and black Chris Cunningham-esque colour scheme looks quite fetching.

I thought so too. Pity about the contents, but I love the box it comes in. Looks like standard USB2 connections, as well, so I'll have a keyboard off them if nothing else, and its probably going to accept any old joypad with ease.

[Jaxon]

The real joke is that InfiniDim Labs expects people to buy their service. Anyone who pays for a broadband connection already has a computer capable of playing the games they want to offer. Why would those people want to pay an additional $30 each month for the Phantom's offerings?
They'd buy themselves a library of "basic" games which will probably turn out to be shareware they can already legally download for free, and pay extra on top of that for "premium" games.

What they're really trying to sell is the service. It would have been far more interesting to see them roll out a service similar to iTunes, where existing PC owners would be able to purchase and immediately download game software. Saddling themselves with the burden of making and giving away hardware just so people can subscribe to their service was completely unnecessary.