[iscariot]

http://www.gaming-age.com/cgi-bin/ne...1&nid=20-46.db

Well, a new contender has thrown their hat into the gaming console ring. Despite the insurmountable lead that Sony enjoys with the PlayStation 2, and the increasing market penetration and mindshare of Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube, Infinium Labs of Florida has decided to laugh bravely in the face of overwhelming odds and introduce a new broadband console into the marketplace. Here's the press release:
Longboat Key, Florida – January 20, 2003 - A Tampa Bay area technology company, Infinium Labs Corporation, will develop and market a new game console that will outperform the XBOX, Sony Playstation 2, and GameCube.

The company plans to market a high performance gaming console and delivery system to provide consumers with options and capabilities that are not available in today’s marketplace. The console will appeal to the hard-core gamer and the high end consumer electronic purchaser. This next generation game console provides a robust, fault tolerant delivery system that supports games on demand, game rentals, game demos, seamless upgrades and patch management. The game console is an “ALWAYS ON BROADBAND DEVICE.” It is easy enough for children to use independently yet so advanced it exceeds the needs of hard-core gamers.

Infinium Labs was formed by veteran entrepreneurs who have a successful track record in building large scale companies and advanced architectures for supporting massive eCommerce and enterprise applications. Combining skills from Telco, Data Communications, Digital Rights Management, Software Development and Security, the management team brings together a unique array of skills to develop the most robust next generation gaming console and delivery network on the market.

The Infinium Labs game console features a high tech design and offers ease of use for the variety of game players worldwide. The on-demand delivery system will appeal to hard-core gamers as well as casual users. The unique design architecture allows for delivery of a large number of games and the ability to participate in online massive multiplayer gaming. Key features include:

- Fastest console on the market
- Broadest selection of preloaded games
- Cross Platform capabilities
- State of the art design and architecture
- Advanced accessories and wireless capabilities
- Online connectivity for multi player gaming
- Seamless upgrades and patch management
- A multi tiered subscription service that meets the needs of casual, moderate and hard-core game players
- Demo games before purchasing or subscribing
- Games on demand
- Game Rentals

The advanced system provides game developers and publishers a secure and efficient software distribution system. Infinium Labs intends for game developers and publishers to reap greater profits using this new game delivery system.

Infinium Labs has engineered its prototypes and expects to unveil the new gaming console in March of 2003. The company intends to launch the game console to the U.S. consumer market by November 2003.

About Infinium Labs: Infinium Labs Corporation was formed in October 2002 as a global entertainment/gaming company. Infinium Labs’ mission is to market a gaming console and delivery system that will be the performance leader in the game playing entertainment industry. The company will market a robust game console that will appeal to a wide audience with its ease of use, quality assurance and robust delivery system.

The mind boggles.

Honestly folks, the roadway is littered with the husks of companies who have tried to get into this business and failed - Jaguar, Nuon and 3DO stand as shining examples of what not to do in the cutthroat arena of console marketing. Still, competition always makes for lively news, so we welcome their presence with open arms, despite some lingering skepticism. Here's hoping that The Phantom's moniker doesn't actually refer to their chances. Rest assured that Gaming-Age will keep you fully abreast of additional news on this new gaming system.

[marconelly!]

So a bunch of dotcom failure execs have gathered to make another, ultra-obvious failure... Suits them well I guess.

[Lazy8s]

I didn't look at the website, but I welcome any console that can provide some new, interesting games. The Xbox's hard drive has helped allow games with unique experiences like the time control in BLiNX and the large-world tracking in Halo and Morrowind, and it will help enable even more ambitious titles like Fable and B.C. in the future. If this new console can play to its own strengths and use its required networking feature for some innovative ideas, I'm all for another piece of hardware.

I also think it's shortsighted to discount a new player in the market when the details of their business plan have yet to be fully revealed. They may not need to sell tens of millions of units to sustain their operation, so thinking that they'll only get crushed by Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo may be the wrong way to consider the whole issue.

[Geeforcer]

That reminds me: what were the 2 consoles announced around Xbox but never got off the ground? One of them was suppoused to be open-source or something...

[Lazy8s]

Geeforcer:

That reminds me: what were the 2 consoles announced around Xbox but never got off the ground? One of them was suppoused to be open-source or something...

Yeah, that was the Indrema, I think it was called.

The other one was the Nuon platform from VMLabs, which was basically a media-processing chip being pitched to DVD-player manufacturers. VMLabs tried to get manufactures to bite on implementing it into their machines to assist with already-existing processing/decoding requirements, with the claim that it would add little to the cost and a lot to the functionality and feature set. All players using the Nuon chip would be part of the Nuon standard, and they'd be compatible with software developed for this trojan-horse platform.

[Geeforcer]

Yeah, thanks. I have a hunch though that Infinium Labs will out-fail them all.

[Blade]

It sounds like they're selling a budget PC. There's no doubt about it..

Where else are you going to get that many software titles? (outside of an upgraded Yoshi's Boxx ) This sounds like a load of crap. It's probably another "test" (ala MAVAV) that ends up stirring up a lot of controversy for no reason.

And thus the fad.. begins! Soon enough some other "organization" will put up a controversial website.. then another..

"All Your Base" and "Freaky Picture And Shriek Popping Up When You Least Expect It" had better look out!

[V3]

Infinium Labs has engineered its prototypes and expects to unveil the new gaming console in March of 2003. The company intends to launch the game console to the U.S. consumer market by November 2003.

About Infinium Labs: Infinium Labs Corporation was formed in October 2002 as a global entertainment/gaming company.

Wow 5 months, either they are really serious or this thing is a PC. Anyway new consoles is always welcome

[simplicity]

The concept drawing looks like a budget PC mini tower case on its side with a plastic cover over the front.

So far these guys make Indrema look well run.

[Tagrineth]

Heh.

Little-known console appearing halfway through the generation which clobbers the rest hardware-wise?

Sounds like Dreamcast. Early start to the new generation.

[BoddoZerg]

Let's make a couple of crappy PCs with overpowered videocards and market them as "Broadband Game Consoles"! Woohoo!

They might as well have codenamed it "Snowball", as it doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell.

PS: I'll bet $10 that their "50,000+ games selection" will look like "The Sims Online, Counter-Strike, Microsoft Chess Network"... kekeke. And it will "outperform" the Xbox/GC/PS2 only in 3dmark2001.

PPS: On second look, it is even more laughable than I anticipated. Even the box and the controller look like they took an Xbox and painted over the Xbox logo. The much advertised "broadband online gaming" means "it can play against PC". Sure... I'm going to go online with a console gamepad and compete in Counter-Strike and Warcraft III against people who have mouse/keyboard. Better yet, I'll do it at 640*480i, so that I can't even see the text on the screen. Damn, which number buys the AWP? Oops, my gamepad doesn't have number keys on it. Even better is the fact that I'll be playing the exact same Windows version of the game as the PC players, so I'll get to enjoy the full PC gaming experience of long load times and endless bugs and patches! Woohoo! It's almost as good as buying a $300 eMachines PC and hooking up a Logitech gamepad!

[Qroach]

a buddy of mine at a game company works about an hour away form these guys. he says he's goign to drive down and check it out. he's expecting nothing more than a good laugh.

[Mod]

I wonder how they will make the video system of this console. I haven't notice if any of the major video companies, nvidia, ati, matrox, are going to make anything relevant outside their usual policies this year.

[Aeros405]

What about Power VR?????

[Lazy8s]

If this whole thing's even legit, I doubt they'd go the PowerVR route. But I know PowerVR has to cooking something up. I would love to see another high-end PowerVR implementation show up in a future SEGA arcade hardware. Faster than Naomi 2 (minus some of the memory overkill) would've been cost feasible for a console back when the PS2 launched, so I can't even imagine what some of the later Series 5+ lines could be doing now...

[marconelly!]

You know, I was thinking. This sound really fishy. I mean, naming console that everyone and his mother has problems believing in - 'Phantom'? That sounds to much like a self fullfilling kiss of death to be true.

Perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of another internet phenomenon where bunch of people with nothing better to do makes a web site, writes a 'press release' and sends it over to all the gullible gaming news outlets, and then sits back and laughs their butts off.

All your base, Mahir and Dancing Baby better watch out!

[marconelly!]

And this is what I'm talking about:

http://www.tuxboxproject.com/

[Geeforcer]

Originally Posted by marconelly!

Perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of another internet phenomenon where bunch of people with nothing better to do makes a web site, writes a 'press release' and sends it over to all the gullible gaming news outlets, and then sits back and laughs their butts off.

Hey, it worked for Bitboys...

[BoddoZerg]

In case you haven't already seen it: