The Hall of Shame 10.10.07: The Phantom

Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 10.10.2007

A PC game console sounds like a good idea. Too bad the company was run by idiots.

Here's a philosophical question for you: Can a video game system suck even though that system has not actually been released?

Of course there was a time where people thought the Wii or Xbox 360 or PS3 sucked even though it wasn't released, but those comments usually come from stupid fanboys. Now you can say either one of those suck through validating reasons, but until then, saying they sucked would be based on how the company's previous systems did and not the actual systems themselves. Or you're just a stupid fanboy.

So on that note, this week's Hall of Shame is going to feel a bit weird, as I induct a video game system which technically never actually came out. So why am I inducting it? Because this system should've been out years ago, but never really saw the light of day because the company behind the system are, to put it lightly, a bunch of idiots. Either that or con artists.

Phantom: Soon to be launched with Duke Nukem Forever

Video games are basically divided into two broad spectrums: The consoles and the PC. The major difference being that consoles come and go, while the PC gets upgraded every few years or so. There are plenty of gamers that play a huge majority of their games on one side or the other, so what if there was some way to combine the two with a PC game console? A PC Game console doesn't sound so bad in theory. See, I'm not much of a PC gamer. Sure I'll play the occasional PC game like The Sims or Warcraft 3, but besides those I'm all console. So to me at least, bringing the PC gaming experience to a home console sounds like a good idea, which is what made the Phantom console so interesting. Can it take games that are played on a machine that sees constant upgrading with RAM and the graphics card and put it on a machine that doesn't upgrade at all?

In 2002, a startup company by the name of Infinium Labs labs announced the Phantom, a game console that was going to revolutionize gaming. However, with the lack of any specific details as to how that would happen, many people wrote it off as a joke. After all, this isn't the first time the game industry saw something hyped up so much only to disappear without a trace, so why suddenly start believing these guys?

What the Phantom was apparently supposed to do was use a direct-download content delivery service (called the PhantomNet-VPGN) instead of the discs and cartridges used by other game consoles. According to David Frederick, chief marketing officer at Infinium Labs, you'll be able to "shop" for games similar to how you would a TiVo to "shop" for television shows. The Phantom was also to come bundled with 50 or so games right off the bat. You can sign up for a subscription service where for $29.95 a month, you would get the Phantom console for free and can download a select number of games for free each month. So basically, all you really needed after you bought the console was a broadband connection and you were set to go. It was like if everything you ever did on Xbox 360 was through Xbox Live. The system was shown off at E3 2004, where Infinium Labs claimed it was going to be launched on November 2004, despite them not having any online delivery software, licensed games or finding any retailers.

So November 2004 came, and there was no Phantom. Infinium Labs then said it would ready by January 2005. So January came and went, and yet again there was still no Phantom. March 2005, the Phantom was still not released and Infinium Labs did not show up for E3 2005. Fall 2005 eventually came and once again, there was still no Phantom. On February 2006, the Phantom was delayed indefinitely "pending further funding" because, since they hadn't released any actual product, they weren't making any money. In fact, at this point they lost more than $62.7 million.

On top of the Phantom constantly getting "delayed", in May 2006 CEO Timothy Roberts was accused of creating a fraudulent "junk fax" scheme in promoting The Phantom in 2004 by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Straight from the litigation release: Roberts authorized the fax promotion and reaped more than $400,000 by unloading his Infinium Labs shares in the ensuing run-up in trading volume...Roberts hired a stock promoter in November 2004 to send faxes to tens of thousands of potential investors across the country. The faxes made it appear as if Infinium Labs were on the verge of launching its flagship product...at the time of the fax campaign, Infinium Labs lacked the financial resources to overcome the significant technological and manufacturing hurdles preventing it from marketing the game system to consumers.

Considering that Roberts has had a history of working for companies that took money from investors and went out of business (including Worldcom, which filed the biggest bankruptcy in United States history), Roberts really had this coming. I'm really surprised that a man like Roberts is not in jail for this (and if he is, someone please give me a link).

Eventually the cycle of "Phantom getting delayed, the company losing money, and Roberts being a con artist" continued until in August 2006 when Infinium Labs (now known as Phantom Entertainment) had announced they had scrapped the Phantom game console, opting instead to continue their network games service similar to Valve's Steam, only Steam is actually trustworthy.

But alas, this wouldn't be the last time that Phantom Entertainment would basically outright lie about it products. Along with the Phantom game console was a wireless keyboard designed for the console called the Phantom Lapboard. The lapboard was meant to be used on a user's lap and also came with a mouse. It was to be released around the Spring of 2006. Then at Spring 2006, it was announced it was delayed but it was said that it would be released "no later then October" of 2006. In August 2006, when the Phantom was canceled for good, the Lapboard would instead be used for regular PCs. When November comes, it was announced it would be released in January 2007. So January comes, and instead they announce that it's going to be launched in March 2007. As of June 2007, the Phantom Lapboard has still not been released, and based on Phantom's track record, it's very likely that as of now there is still no ANYTHING from this company, except more lies and stock worth about 1/20 of a cent per share. That's about the same value as 5 supermarket coupons.

Since the companies inception, they've lost $73 million, and what do they have to show for it? A console that died before it was even born and a lapboard that will eventually share the same fate. So technically, I guess you can say the Phantom was an abortion. But hey, at least you can buy millions of Phantom stock for a measly few bucks.

But before this Hall of Shame comes to an end, it wasn't the only system that tried to be a PC game console. A company called Envizions Computer Entertainment Corporation released a system last year called the Evo: Phase One. If you've never heard about it until now, I don't blame you, since after the initial press release, little to nothing else has been said about this system and I remember going to their forums which looked deserted. The biggest problem with the Evo: Phase One is that they decided to only sell it and the accessories online. You know what other video game console was being sold only online? The Gizmondo, and that was one of the biggest failures in video game history. With little to no other news since that press release, it gives me the feeling that the Evo: Phase One has become obsolete and will soon only be used by hardcore hackers for other purposes, just like the Gizmondo.

And so, with the Phantom being vaporware and the Evo: Phase One becoming a very niche product, we'll never actually know if PC gaming can work on a home console. Guess we'll just have to stick to ports until someone, somewhere, can really make a go of it.