Phantom gaming console disappears for good

In a shocking turn of events development that will surprise absolutely no one, the company formerly known as Infinium Labs has apparently removed all references to the all-too-aptly named Phantom PC video game console from its website, leading us to believe that the product that never was is finally dead in the water. Recently renamed Phantom Entertainment (probably to shed the constant vaporware references that plagued its former moniker), the company is now focused on marketing its wireless gaming Lapboard and so-called Phantom Game Service, which is the "first end-to-end on-demand game service delivering games to your living room" (guess they never heard of GameTap) -- that is, if you happen to have an XP-powered PC situated in that particular room. As is fitting for such a shady operation, the service itself is not actually live yet; they're busy modifying the software that was originally intended for the proprietary console to run on standard Windows machines. So in conclusion, the slippery company with grandiose aspirations that we've devoted numerous (mocking) posts to for over two years has exactly one source of revenue: a keyboard / mouse set with a pretty snazzy design.

[Via Joystiq]

[RocketPunch @ Aug 16th 2006 1:14PM]

NNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Say it ain't so mommy.....Please make the pain go away.....

Seriously, WFC??

[olternaut @ Aug 16th 2006 1:26PM]

Silly but at the same time.....kinda sad. Whats wrong with dreaming big? =

[plake @ Aug 16th 2006 1:44PM]

L-O-FRIGGIN-L

[Luke @ Aug 16th 2006 2:13PM]

The Phantom Game Service is anticipated to be the first end-to-end, on-demand game service delivering online games directly to your living room or any comfortable setting in your home or workplace. Delivered over broadband, the Phantom Game Service is designed to offer casual and avid gamers a broad library of titles, available anytime, day or night.

The Phantom Game Service was originally engineered to run on a Windows XP embedded operating system on a Phantom Game Receiver managed by Phantom content servers over the Internet.

The Company intends to modify the Phantom Game Service software to run as client software on personal computers operating Windows XP and Windows XP Media center operating systems.

[Tom @ Aug 16th 2006 2:19PM]

Whats weird is that their stock went down. Shouldn't removing such a horrible product from their line raise the stock? :P

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=PHEI.OB

[jake @ Aug 16th 2006 2:25PM]

Thank god. Now we just need the lapboard and the "service" to fail miserably as well.

[Frequency Shift @ Aug 16th 2006 2:27PM]

Of course the stock went down. The people that bought the stock did so with the belief that the Phantom would be manufactured and sold successfully.

[Evil Closet Monkey @ Aug 16th 2006 2:38PM]

"a keyboard / mouse set with a pretty snazzy design." ...

With absolutely no ergonomic value what-so-ever.

[AP @ Aug 16th 2006 2:43PM]

No surprises from a company named "Phantom". The next Phantomware product should be available and disappear sometime soon.

[JabbaD @ Aug 16th 2006 2:56PM]

Does anyone know how much money was spent on this flop?

[B-Sabre @ Aug 16th 2006 3:08PM]

Ha! I mock you! I mock you effin' HARD!

[Sean DL @ Aug 16th 2006 3:23PM]

Millions from old ladies retirement funds....

[Bob Smith @ Aug 16th 2006 3:38PM]

Of course, it can't help your stock price when your founder/director/former CEO is being sued by the SEC for a fraudulent stock scam...

http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2006/lr19701.htm

[Jon @ Aug 16th 2006 4:30PM]

And the winnner for most appropriate company name...

[TangledThorns @ Aug 16th 2006 4:59PM]

I always knew the Phantom console was a bust but that lapboard looks awesome. It'd be nice if MS or Sony would use the lapboard for their consoles. FPS games with a gamepad sucks!

[Chandler Swenson @ Aug 16th 2006 5:23PM]

I came across phantom right when they first started. Their original claim was that they were going to play all of the 'next-gen' (i.e. GC, XBOX, PS2) games. Does anyone else remember this?

[Joseph Rosario @ Aug 16th 2006 7:20PM]

what a sad way to go.

They seemed to have so much potential when they were starting up.

[Ian Felder @ Aug 16th 2006 7:56PM]

TangledThorns:
You could buy the Lapboard and buy one of those Adapters for the XBOX and the PS2 that let you use a standard keyboard adn mouse set. that woudl be pretty sweet

[Dude @ Aug 16th 2006 10:09PM]

According to their filings, they spent $67 million on development -- and still have nothing to show for it. They even admitted to paying people to post on message boards to promote the (now dead) console that never appeared. Weird, eh?

[Steven @ Aug 17th 2006 10:25AM]

Let us bow our heads in a moment of reverant silence. This is the end of an era. I will greatly miss this vaporware. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Now all we can make fun of is the Duke Nukem vaporware and that's kind of boring. There doesn't seem to be any corporate scandals to go along with it.

Now what are we gonna do? I'm bored.