OMG Phantom will you please DIAF

Brian Ambrozy 15 Dec, 2008 at 11:47pm ET Article published in Gaming

The Phantom - never was a product more aptly named

No seriously.

Okay, so they absolutely ripped off people, criminally so, and took investors’ cash at the beginning of the 21st century to make the “Phantom Game Console,” a product which completely and utterly failed to materialize.

Then, a few years back they announced they were changing their name from Infinium Labs to Phantom Entertainment, and instead of producing a game console, they were going to make a “lapboard”.

There’s a whole bunch of crap—from a mega-failed lawsuit against tech site [H]ardOCP (it failed so hard that they got countersued and lost), to a failed deal to include lapboards with Alienware computers, Infinium/Phantom has been one mega fail after another. Seriously, these guys deserve a lifetime achievement of fail award.

When I saw the news on 1up.com today that they are now talking about launching a gaming service, I was flabbergasted. How often can you use a word like ‘flabbergasted’ and actually mean it? That’s serious business. I hate to even justify this with a link, but the Phantom Gamestore is now in beta.

Phantom has partnered with Gamestreamers, Inc. to provide downloads of PC games. Gamestreamers will be at CES in 2009 and so will I. I want to meet these people and find out what they plan on offering that is better than Steam or Games for Windows. More importantly, I’d like to know what genius thinks that keeping the Phantom brand and logo somehow adds any value whatsoever to anything. Why not just start up a new game download service with your inanely-granted investment money and name it something “We Swear This Is Not Phantom Or Infinum RAD DOWNLOAD SERVICE!!!!” Keep an eye on this space.

Comments

15 Dec 2008 ~ 11:51pm jared After they spent a whole year trying to sue [H] and Kyle Bennett only to fail miserably, I figured they had quit honestly. They should have.
15 Dec 2008 ~ 11:52pm jared oh and this was from Penny arcade in 2003.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2003/20030820l.gif
16 Dec 2008 ~ 12:06am Bandrik Holy crap. I've never heard of these guys, but from your article alone... this is simply ludicrous. And you're right - if you've shot BOTH of your feet already, why shoot yourself in the groin next by using THE SAME BRANDING?!

*facepalm*
16 Dec 2008 ~ 12:22am Winfrey

How often can you use a word like â€˜flabbergastedâ€™ and actually mean it? Thatâ€™s serious business.

bwahaha!
16 Dec 2008 ~ 12:43am Leonardo Again! They're still here? Holy smokes.

How is it that some fraudsters can be so energetic and so creative, but still just want to tear down and steal. Were they to apply the same energy to something honest, they'd probably be a huge success.
16 Dec 2008 ~ 8:26am mertesn

I've never heard of these guys

This is what they're counting and capitalizing on. They lay low for a year or two and then return for a fresh victim.
16 Dec 2008 ~ 8:27am Shorty I cannot believe they are STILL around. Well I will be damned.
17 Dec 2008 ~ 6:03pm _Arthur Not only they are launching the very same product, minus the console, but they are launching it in partnership with GameStreamer, whose CEO is one Timothy Roberts. Funny how things never change.

By-the-by, their download site is now down, for an undisclosed duration.
17 Dec 2008 ~ 6:23pm primesuspect TIMOTHY ROBERTS is the CEO of GAMESTREAMER?

Oh the lolz never cease.
17 Dec 2008 ~ 10:02pm _Arthur I can even top that, Suspect.
The Phantom Game Store, whith the mark "Powered by GameStreamer" is just a skin over a standard trygame.com portal
http://www.trygames.com/
they even replaced the "Powered by ActiveMark" with their own bogus technology logo.
The downloads, the DRM, the payments are all handled by TryGames.com
18 Dec 2008 ~ 12:59pm Leonardo

They lay low for a year or two and then return for a fresh victim.

It's understandable how consumers might get hoodwinked. There are always people entering the online market without much experience, and the stakes are relatively low. What boggles my mind is that investors will time and again fork over significant money to these lowlifes. No excuse, research is just too easy.