HOMM V: Nival (An SAT analogy question)

(a) Phantom: Infinium Labs
(b) Duke Nukem Never: 3D Realms
(c) Area 51: Guantanamo Bay
(d) None of the above

If you answered (a), you're correct! Read aloud, the question-answer pair go like this: "Heroes of Might and Magic V is to developer Nival as the Phantom console is to Infinium Labs."

Quick summary for those of you puzzled by the suggestion that HOMM V is another Phantom or Duke Nukem Forever: Kevin Bachus (whom you might remember from his role co-creating the first Xbox) recently quit as CEO of Infinium Labs, the company that promised to deliver the Phantom game console. Kev then took a job as CEO of Nival Interactive, the hybrid LA-Russian (like, whatever, Comrade, I'm so sure) developer that is responsible for developing and releasing HOMM V. HOMM V recently made headlines because beta testers complained so loudly about the poor quality of the beta that Nival was forced to scrap its release plans and send the game back to developers in Russia. (In Soviet Russia, beta test plays YOU.)

So now Bachus is promising a launch of HOMM V some time in 2006, according to a GameCloud chat with Mr. Bachus. We are therefore suggesting (via analogy) that this promise too may be broken. In our gamer heart of hearts, however, we're hoping that HOMM V does indeed launch soon and that Mr. Bachus will shake his Phantom legacy.