With the announcement of OnLive at GDC last month, gamers are reminded of the console that never was, the Phantom. Originally announced in 2002 by Infinium Labs, they touted the console as a revolutionary new gaming platform which would offer an on-demand gaming service. It wasn"t until 2004 at E3 when the Phantom was seen in public and demonstrated for the first though. At this time the company still hadn"t developed the online delivery system and despite having no licensed games or partners at retail, Infinium Labs sent thousands of faxes out announcing the console"s availability in January 2005.
Having missed a number of deadlines and release dates, the console was later removed from the company"s website and cancelled. Or has it? Kevin Bachus former head of Xbox and CEO of Infinium Labs spoke with Gamasutra this week and revealed some information on Infinium"s plans to bring the console back to the market.
"I wish them nothing but success, I think that for me, there"s kind of an empty place in our heart where Phantom should be because there was tremendous scepticism about the system and a lot of joke-telling and a lot of criticism.
In some cases, there was also some bitterness and nastiness that was directed at the product, which is unfortunate because for those who actually spent the time to get to understand what we were doing and looked at it, I think they saw something that probably was pretty cool.
Maybe in a way, it was a little bit ahead of its time because it was attempting to make the whole process of accessing games easier and therefore more accessible to a broader audience."