A Sarasota company hopes to carve out a niche in the tough video game market with a new console and online service.
By CHIP CARTER
Published November 24, 2003
There's a new player ready to ride into town for gamers, and it's as mysterious as its name: the Phantom.
Developed by Infinium Labs in Sarasota, the Phantom Game Console and PhantomNet Virtual Private Game Network promise to be a supercharged entry into the online gaming world.
Though the company has begun using testers on the system, has met with game developers and plans to roll out the system early next year, it communicates mostly through news releases and e-mail.
"We are not a game console in the sense of an Xbox (or PlayStation 2)," David Frederick, the company's chief marketing officer, said in an e-mail. "We are a new content delivery system for games. We are not providing a direct competitive product with Microsoft and Sony."
It is, according to its Web site (www.phantom.net) and news releases, basically a power-packed computer designed to take advantage of a high-speed digital subscriber line or cable Internet access.
The system has a fast processor, lots of memory, Internet access to online games and competition with other players, as well as bonuses such as video conferencing, instant messaging and online newsgroups.
It's packaged in a futuristic-looking box that will sell for $399 or so, according to Infinium. In addition, a monthly subscription to the Virtual Private Game Network will cost $9.95. Games are downloaded at prices varying from $2.99 to $50 depending on the title and whether you rent or buy.
"It's hard to know what to make of these guys," said David Cole, president of California industry think tank DFC Intelligence. "It is a big challenge, but they do have the type of thing where they could possibly sneak under the radar."
The company raised $5-million to get under way, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported, and is working on a $20-million preferred stock plan that it hopes to close by the end of the year.
Infinium is expected to employ up to 200 people at its headquarters in downtown Sarasota. Frederick says that the staff "is a mix of local and national talent" and that Sarasota's quality of life, low taxes and talent pool drew the company to the area.
Last month, it announced a deal with Riverdeep Inc., a software company with titles such as Carmen Sandiego, Reader Rabbit and Mavis Beacon, and promises that more deals are expected. If all goes according to plan, the Phantom could be on the market during the first quarter of 2004.
But Infinium is entering a field littered with companies that tried and failed to make their mark. Remember the Atari 2600? It shared the market with Mattel's Intellivision in the 1970s and early '80s.
Nintendo ruled the roost with its Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES until Sega mounted a challenge with its Genesis and other systems in the early '90s. After Sony and then Microsoft joined the fray, Sega dropped out.
Two dozen video gaming systems have come and gone since the original Atari 2600. Systems from Nintendo, Sega, computer giant NEC, worldwide electronics leader Philips and even a resurrected Atari have gone by the boards. Sega alone has launched and botched a half-dozen game machines.
The flaws are rarely technological. Most of the failed systems were at least as good as those that survived. Former industry wunderkind Trip Hawkins, founder of software giant Electronic Arts, left that company a decade ago to launch the 3DO. The technology was revolutionary. Support was haphazard, though, and promised innovations were always just beyond the horizon. 3DO died a death that was slow, agonizing - but not undeserved or unexpected. It's a tough market.
So what will keep the Phantom from becoming just another ghost in the video game graveyard? That's sketchy right now. Interview requests with Infinium brass were shunted aside for weeks, though Frederick, the chief marketing officer, responded to a handful of questions via e-mail.
It is clear that Infinium will sell hardware and software, just like any other video game company. In fact, Sega tried a similar concept a few years ago, offering downloadable game content via a subscription cable television channel. But the Phantom is a closed system that apparently will rely solely on the Web for content. It's a unique blend of hardware, software and a dedicated Internet service provider geared toward gamers.
Games can be previewed, rented, purchased or subscribed to online. No middleman. No retailer. Plans also call for a multitiered subscription service, online play and on-demand games.
For now, gamers can buy the system only online, though Frederick says that could change. Broadcast and print advertising campaigns are in the wings to get the word out to consumers.
The Phantom system specifications sound just like those for high-end computers: "blazing" processing speed with 512 megabytes of random access memory, the latest version of the NVidia video card, a broadband modem for digital subscriber line or cable connections, a 100-gigabyte hard drive and Dolby Digital surround sound.
Upgrades from Phantom.net will give the system a longer shelf life than other units, Frederick says. And it's all tied together via the Windows XP Embedded operating system.
So what kind of games can players expect to see on the Phantom, and where will they come from? Infinium's tight-lipped about that, but Frederick says that using Windows should make programming for the system easy, whether third-party software suppliers create new titles specifically for the Phantom or modify existing Xbox or PlayStation 2 games.
The company's motto is "Built for gamers, by gamers." But its top executives come to consumer electronics and interactive entertainment from backgrounds as varied as Xerox, NationsBank and General Dynamics.
"We've taken a different approach in that the Phantom console is a means to an end," Frederick said. "The (Virtual Private Game Network) is the power behind the machine, what feeds Phantom."
Is that enough to sway gamers plugged into their Xboxes and PlayStations, especially with new systems from Microsoft and Sony due in 2005? Maybe. More than 40,000 applicants signed up for an upcoming beta test of the new system, and 300 were selected.
Whether they'll be there when it comes time to open their wallets is only a guess. But, at least in online forums, gamers seem skeptical that the company can pull it off.
Analyst Cole says Infinium has "fairly modest expectations. They're not expecting anywhere near the numbers that PS2 or Xbox has. They're looking toward more of a hard-core user and working with cable companies, but that is a potential niche out there. If you can do a successful business model to carve out a niche, that's different than trying to compete with Sony."
- Chip Carter is a syndicated video game columnist who lives in Tampa.
