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I hope you're comfy, because this another long-winded, trademark Abe article/rant/opinion. Call me the Tolkien of the gaming industry... no seriously, please? Alright, so probably not. Lets get on with it then.

When rumors started flying in the beginning of 2003 about an up and coming console known as the "Phantom" from Infinium Labs, many people believed it to be some sort of elaborate hoax. The Infinium Labs hype machine went into overdrive, promising thousands of games, hot multiplayer action and state of the art hardware. Speaking for the majority of the gaming community, most of us really didn't care. There were so many wild rumors and so much speculation that many gamers simply shrugged it off. Infinium Labs was on the defensive when the rumors first spread about the console. They seemed to get pretty upset that people thought it was a hoax, almost to the point of verbally attacking nay-sayers beyond any point of real professionalism and credibility. I wish I had some old news articles to quote from earlier this year, but I can tell you it almost got ugly in a few cases. They were barking some pretty outlandish claims such as:

Then they go killing posted URLs on their forums that link to other web sites who've done rather informative articles about the Phantom or Infinium Labs themselves. Not only that, but they, uhm, I guess BORROW well-known slogans from other gaming companies then trademark them for their own use:

"Built by Gamers for Gamers."
(This is an older slogan that Interplay used)

It wasn't hard for gamers to start dogging the Phantom and Infinium Labs from the very start.

Enter CES 2003, Las Vegas. An actual physical Phantom console was shown to the public at the Microsoft Embedded booth. However, due to the fact that the unit wasn't powered up during the exhibit, many critics were left still skeptical. That is, until pictures were posted on the Internet of a private penthouse party that showed the console live and in action. Ok, so it actually DOES exist... and it plays games too, apparently.

So just what in the hell is this thing? I'll describe it to you in my own words. It's a living room PC for your TV. It's more of a PC than an actual console, although I'm sure Infinium Labs might argue otherwise. Everyone said the same thing about the Xbox when it was about to debut. In the end, it turned out to be more console than PC, in an honest implementation. Microsoft made sure to steer the Xbox in that direction, despite all the hacks and mods people are doing. The inherit design of the Phantom puts a lot of doubt in my mind though. The hardware design of the system is much akin to the Xbox. It's a PC in a box. It will sport a "standard configuration" which consists of a an AMD XP2500+, custom Nforce2 motherboard, 256MB of Dual Channel DDR memory, 80GB hard drive, NVidia NV36 graphics, Ethernet port and standard peripherals like a wireless keyboard, mouse and controllers. You will have the option to upgrade the system with a faster processor, more memory and more hard drive space. The base configuration is currently priced at $299, according to beta information given on the Phantom forums. You think the Xbox sells at a loss? I think the Phantom will take that crown away from Microsoft, easily. Assuming the Phantom makes it past it's infancy, you can expect to upgrade it if you want to play newer games as they are released. More on that in a moment.

Everyone wants to know what sorts of games are going to be available upon release. In today's market, unless you're Microsoft, your new console won't get very far without a ‘killer app' or a good selection of games. Well, according to rumors, there will be thousands of games upon release. It looks like EA is getting on board, as I found this quote from "Tim", an apparent Infinium Labs employee and moderator on the Phantom forums, whom I assume is Tim Roberts, Infinium CEO.

"We are in talks with EA currently and feel we will have a distribution deal negotiated with them by our launch date."

And...

"The large publishers all get a gen 2 box in mid-feb which will allow them to do security validation and audits to make sure they feel comfortable with our DRM technology. We have already had our PhantomOS and DRM passed by other large gaming companies and also in the video industry."

Last but not least,

"This is a process we will go through over the next few months. Once we certify our DRM we will have not only back-catalog games, but ALL the NEW RELEASES as well."

So there will definitely be PC titles ported to the Phantom. Well, they won't really be ported, according to Infinium Labs, since the OS on the Phantom is Windows XP Embedded, optimized for the purpose of gaming. They will simply need to be made available on the Phantom's online network. Once they are, you will be able to download them to your console via broadband for demo's, rentals, and purchase. According to Infinium CEO Tim Roberts, "... it can take as long as 10 minutes to download a video game over a standard broadband connection." By wording it this way, he makes it sound like 10 minutes is going to be the high-end of the spectrum. I'm not sure who's direct backbone he's hooked into, or what type of broadband connection he has, but I know for a fact that most of the broadband in the United States runs between 256KB to 3 Megabit. Even at 3 Megabit, downloading a typical 1GB install of a game from a CD or 2, an honest average for many of today's popular PC games, would take a lot longer than 10 minutes... try closer to half an hour. Now imagine downloading that at only 1Mb speeds or even 256KB. On a higher speed line it'd probably be faster than driving down to the store to pick up the game, but do some of us really need another reason not to venture outside? It'd take forever to download a number of today's games on a low-end broadband connection. So Infinium's answer to this is to monitor what games we like to play and start automatically downloading games they think we would want to the Phantom. What about people like me who play games from many different genre's? A lot of gamers don't just stick to one genre either. So Infinium is going to start filling up the hard drive with all sorts of games? Why bother, when it only takes "10 minutes" to download a game? Maybe they've found a way to downsize the install size of today's popular PC games, or Timmy is blowing smoke up our asses. We'll have to wait and see.

The Phantom's hardware is supposedly 100% compatible with every PC game on the market, so no REAL porting should be needed. I am assuming this is where the optional hardware upgrades for the Phantom come in. As newer PC games are released years from now, the hardware in the Phantom will likely need to be upgraded to play them smoothly, just like you have to upgrade your PC. You will be able to download updates and patches for your games (and probably console updates) through the Phantom's network, a lot like you can with the Xbox and Xbox Live. There is no CD/DVD drive of any kind on the Phantom. Everything will be downloaded via broadband. So you won't actually own anything physical as far as the game goes, as you would with a normal PC game. You are basically paying for a service that provides you with games, kind of like the old Sega Channel - remember that one? The games will exist on the Phantom's hard disk, that's about it. On a positive note, you won't ever have to worry about losing or damaging your media anymore. Monthly pricing for this service is currently set at $9.95. On top of this, you will also need a broadband connection. If you don't have broadband, you won't be playing on a Phantom. Games are expected to cost anywhere from $2.99 to $50 US.

It's questionable whether or not there will be any good exclusive titles for the Phantom. Your guess is as good as mine. We know there will be a "Halo style" first person shooter and a Massive Multiplayer Online Game. Beyond that, I couldn't find any information regarding exclusive titles for the system. As far as my research goes, you'll get to play mainly PC games that have already been released to the normal PC gaming crowd - including quite a number of older games, some from about a decade ago... we're talking DOS games here. In theory, you could just take your PC and hook it into your TV, run a wireless network connection and have the same sort of offerings the Phantom gives you. But since the Phantom PC is cleverly disguised a console, Infinium Labs is hoping it will be more appealing than the scenario I just presented - I assume it would be too.

In all honestly, I don't think there's going to be much of a market for the Phantom. I'm trying not to be TOO judgmental here (yes, I know I am failing miserably), I can only speculate at this point and make educated guesses using my vast knowledge of the industry *cough*. I don't think the current market can support four consoles. It barely supports three as it is. If Microsoft didn't have so much money and power (and Halo), the Xbox would have failed, guaranteed. I'm really surprised the Phantom was even displayed at the Microsoft booth at CES. I know Microsoft wants to get into the home entertainment arena as bad as most teenage boys want to get into Britney Spears panties and the Phantom seems like direct competition for that aspiration. There's more to it than that... there are more facts that I don't have. There HAS to be. Maybe Microsoft was just being nice, out of pity? Who the hell knows. At least a few people are interested in this thing. The Phantom forums have a little over 4000 registered users that show up on their public list. About 200 of those actually have more than 10 posts. In contrast, the official Xbox forums have over 300,000 registered users. That might not be a totally fair comparison since the Phantom isn't even out yet, but it still gives you an idea of the community interest of the Phantom, especially since everything I've seen about it has been found only on the Internet.

I can tell you exactly what it's going to take to make the Phantom a success. A few things: Appealing exclusive titles, great marketing, a wad of investment capital and a good selection of games. So far, Infinium has one of those, that being claims of a $25 million wad of investment capital. I don't know enough, nor could find information about the two mentioned exclusive titles to guess whether they will be any good. They're supposed to have tons of PC titles available for the Phantom, but is that really going to be enough to drive this console to success? Have you been to your local game store lately? The PC games shelf is shrinking by the day. Console games... TRUE console games, are really starting to dominate. In my reality, without exclusive titles and by all evidence given, the outlook of the Phantom is grim. So what if you can play Battlefield 1942 on your Phantom, I can play it on my PC and probably whip your ass online! Yes, the Phantom will integrate multiplayer just like the PC does. You will be playing on servers with standard PC gamers as well as Phantom owners. I am trying to figure out just who in the heck their target audience is. It's definitely not me. Why would I want a Phantom when I own a PC - to play games on my TV? I own an Xbox if I want to do that. Games are all downloaded over broadband to your Phantom's hard drive. You won't even really own the damn game! They are trying to start a whole new market here. Some people think games and even movies are heading this way. If they succeed then hey, they were the first and congratulations on that. I don't think we're quite there yet, just like I don't think online console gaming such as Xbox Live or PS2 online is quite there yet. Sure, there are some great titles on both those platforms and there will probably be at least some fun to be had on the Phantom, but I still have my doubts. All you have to do is look at the sales numbers for Xbox Live and PS2 online and compare. The percentage of online play for consoles is very low versus their respective install base. Do you know one of the reasons for that? It's because good online console gaming happens only over broadband in almost every instance. Any hardcore online gamer knows that more people who own gaming PCs have broadband versus people who only own consoles. Again, if you already own a PC and have broadband, why are you going to want a Phantom? I don't know about you, but I use my PC for a hell of a lot more stuff than just gaming – more things than the Phantom will be capable of. If you only own a console and don't currently play online, then are you really going to get hooked up to broadband just so you can play with the Phantom? I believe that rules out a few more target audiences.

The Phantom is currently in its beta stages right now. I'm not sure if they are still accepting beta sign ups or not, but you can head to their website and check. Even with Microsoft's power and clout, the Xbox almost didn't make it as the new guy on the block. I do respect Infinium Labs for trying, they've definitely got some big gonads, especially considering similar console failures of this type like the Indrema. Good luck Infinium. We'll be keeping an eye on ya. Oh, and don't get too upset that I took a few cheap shots at you guys (Infinium Labs). It's all in good fun and entertainment for the reader. I really do respect you guys for trying.

(Like how I just saved that? Oh yeah!)

P.S. Normally I wouldn't attempt to take away any of my thunder by linking another site's feature in MY feature, but they really did a bang-up job on this piece of investigation, they deserve some recognition. HardOCP has a FABULOUS article about the Phantom and Infinium Labs. If you have more interests in the company or console, it's worth a read.