The PHANTOM Console

[CliffyBiro]

Some of you may remember hearing of the Phantom.

he Phantom was a controversial video game console that was allegedly under development by Phantom Entertainment, formerly Infinium Labs. The cancelled device was supposedly planned to be capable of playing current and future PC games, giving the system a massive initial game library and making it easier for developers to produce games for the system. The system was supposedly designed to use a direct-download content delivery service instead of the discs and cartridges used by most game consoles.

Whether this was actually in production or not remains to be seen, but what do you think the chances are in seeing something like this in the near future?

Better broadband speeds are definitely a must, but it does seem feasible to have a download only games market.

The Phantom was first seen in action at the May 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) as a working prototype. Infinium Labs claimed it would go on sale that November for the holiday season, however the company still had not developed the online delivery software, licensed games or found any retailers. The company missed all those deadlines, while at the same time sending thousands of faxes claiming the system would be ready and launched in January 2005.
When that deadline passed, Infinium predicted the system's release to be around March 2005. That date passed and Infinium Labs did not appear at the 2005 E3.[2] There were hints from Kevin Bachus, former Infinium CEO, that the Phantom would be released around the same time as the Xbox 360 in Autumn 2005, but that date was also missed.
On February 21, 2006 it was reported that The Phantom video game console has been delayed indefinitely "pending further funding".
As of August 15, 2006, the Phantom Console is not listed on the Products page of the website and has been cancelled.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_(game_system)

http://www.phantom.net/

 

[CaptainComedy]

Its a shame they didnt go through with it, Im assuming it was developers that were reluctant to go online only.

But tbh if cloud computing happens I cant see this taking off as they wont need to download anything for the game itself other than video and audio.

 

[Phatjayunoi]

I'm sorry but Phantom what?

All the hype and such it had throughout the years was just plain and utter bull to be honest. It should just be written off gaming history seeing as now we have the next hyped up thing coming that is OnLive.

Whether or not OnLive will go through all the way remains to be seen, but compared to the Phantom, I rather take my chances with OnLive.

 

[Smit]

Never going to happen
OnLive as mentioned above is more likely and I can't see that being a big success either

 

[Welshy]

I heard it didn't go through because the CEO (or someone relatively high up) was doing some naughty business and got into some legal difficulties...

Edit: It is actually mentioned in the "Financial difficulties" part of that wiki page.

 

[Tobes]

skippi I'm not sure what you are asking? We have a digital download service and it's Steam. Nothing can compete with it.

All Phantom was, was a pc connected to your TV with a nice lap keyboard and mouse. They realised this and sold the lapboard

We won't get anything like this as we already have this. You can't pull the wool over peoples eyes and try and make a device which is basically a pc with a nice frontend a must have for the TV setup. Because people who are after that will already have a media centre or a games console connected to their TV.

 

[Shador]

On a slight diversion that is a very nice lapboard! never seen anything like that!

 

[Sash]

Its not quite related. But didnt anyone remember the handheld open source games console that was supposed to have been coming out last year/this year? It was supposed to be competing with the DS and PSP and was totally open source which means anyone could program games for it (but would most likely be used for emulators)

Edit: Found it I think: http://openpandora.org/

 

[Streeteh]

Its not quite related. But didnt anyone remember the handheld open source games console that was supposed to have been coming out last year/this year? It was supposed to be competing with the DS and PSP and was totally open source which means anyone could program games for it (but would most likely be used for emulators)

The Gizmondo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gizmondohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gizmondo

Looks like failed consoles have a strange connection with people involved with crime

 

[Sash]

I found it and linked to it above. Runs on linux. Interesting.

 

[Hostile_18]

I thought the Phantom was just a scam? A product soley designed to be bought out by Microsoft I think were the rumors at the time. I remember there were articles trying to find the offices of said project and it was one man and an office or something along those lines lol.

 

[M0T]

I thought the Phantom was just a scam? A product soley designed to be bought out by Microsoft I think were the rumors at the time. I remember there were articles trying to find the offices of said project and it was one man and an office or something along those lines lol.

I remember that, IIRC it was an partly unused office building and none of the other tennants had ever heard of them.

Surely the point was that the founder annouces total vapourware and the value of his company massively increases overnight, he sells and makes a huge profit?