Gamespot is reporting that Infinium Labs is hurting for cash and it looks like the Phantom is no more. However, they still plan to market and sell the Phantom Lapboard.
Quote:
Last month, the company announced an arrangement for $5 million in funding from Golden Gate Investors. As part of that agreement, Infinium has filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing the company's unprofitable past and laying out its game plan for the future.
From its inception in December of 2002 through September of last year, Infinium racked up $62.7 million in losses. Of that, only $3.5 million has been lost to development costs. The company has spent more than half that in advertising, even though none of its products or services have been released yet. More of the company's money has been going toward consultants ($12.8 million), salaries ($11.9 million), and general and administrative expenses ($5.9 million).
Wow, I dont really know what to say about this...I was always iffy along with everyone else as to if the phantom would ever see the light of day. Yet we still dont know for sure...
Gametap, Nintendo and Microsoft (Xbox Live 360) thought this was a fantastic idea. That is why all three companies have done it sooner and better.
I never put any stock in the idea myself, because I'm not all that much into retro games (I think they are awesome, but I only play them for about 15 minutes at a pop and then I move on to a new game again.), but the idea of selling downloadable retro games has been a been a big success on Xbox Live 360, it seems to be a success on the PC with Gametap and Nintendo has sold their older titles for a whopping $30.00 a pop on the Gameboy Advance and plans to offer them on the Revolution.
The idea was good, it was just that the Phantom couldn't pull it together.
__________________ Play Gears of War with it - "Marcus, take cover. Yes...over by the couch!"
As for Infinium Labs, I'm just waiting for them to truly disappear forever. Whenever I see a post here with their name in the title, it's pretty safe to assume it's not going to contain good news about the company. More like than not, it will contain news about some other investor throwing their money into the Infinium Labs trashcan, though.
There were people out there that thought that Phantom would actually succeed? Ha.
Consoles succeed by offering bleeding edge technology that costs 500-700$ to manufacture for $400 or less. That's how you get peoples attention. A startup cannot possibly enter this market. And even most well established corporations can't.
Clearly the market is only big enough for one Phantom game console, and the PS3 pretty much has that covered.
Got all kinds of goofy looks from my co-workers when I started cackling at this line. Thanks a lot.
__________________
Gamertag: Zanzibar / My Halo 3 Stats NationalKato: Palin has no foreign policy experience. This is literally one step above giving the slot to the winner of a game show.
Cannot believe there was a following behind this thing. I browsed their forums at one point, and got banned breifly there after, because I said that the console would never actually come out. Huh. Guess I was dead on...
Wow, only 3.5 to development, and a majority of the money going to advertising something that doesn't even exist. That should be illegal.
I'm all for a company generating hype, but for god sakes. . . looking at where all the money went its very clear this was a con job thought up by a few people to get some large salaries for a few years. Great work if you can get it I guess, if you have no morals.
Hell, the people there may have even convinced themselves it would happen. . . just so they could sleep at night and use the money they were getting with a clear conscience.
As far as the investors go, they got what they deserved.
