Why It Won: Zelda games come around more frequently than Mario games and so aren't held to the same absurd scrutiny. In fact, after a lifetime of mostly-identical storylines (the princess is kidnapped, oh noes!) it wouldn't be altogether ridiculous to wonder when something new would come along for Link to do besides spend all day fishing, blowing into an ocarina, and looking for pieces of the much-elusive Tri-force. I'd all but discounted the series as an ad-tedium retread of the same concepts when The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass came along and I, feeling sorry for my oft-neglected DS, decided to give it a whirl.

Contra 4: This was the first game in a long time to "feel" like a Contra game. The fast-paced shooter is one of the best portables released this year and deserves recognition, but the joy it takes in its difficulty makes it a game not for everyone, and besides taking advantage of both screens the only real reason for this game to be on the DS is because it would look ridiculous on any other platform. What the game needs is a boomerang you control by drawing its path with the stylus.

MechAssault: Phantom War "fuses [...] game play elements from the series with new features that take advantage of the unique mechanics of the Nintendo DS," said Ken Gold, vice president of Marketing for Majesco Entertainment. "The touch screen lets players intuitively 'touch' the cockpit controls to hack into giant 'Mechs, eject pilots, switch weapons and check battle techniques."

According to Majesco, the game will feature:

• More than 20 types of 'Mechs, tanks, and other vehicles
• Fully upgradeable weapons
• Wireless multiplayer connectivity with up to four players
• 24 single-player campaigns
• Unlockable 'Mechs, maps, and cheats

Note: This article was originally posted in two weekly installments during the weeks of September 19th and 27th 2004. For archival's sake, both parts are being reprinted here. All mentions of dates (past and present) should be considered relative to the time in which they were written.

Since January of 2003, when we first announced that industry newcomer Infinium Labs intended to make a new game system, there has been an endless debate as to the system’s validity and the company’s legitimacy. It seems like every time we lose interest in the controversial Phantom, Infinium lands themselves in the media spotlight for some fantastic claim or some PR fiasco. Just recently, the company’s financial security has been brought into question, and I’m beginning to wonder if all the fanatics who’ve been calling the Phantom “vaporware” for two years might be right on the money.

Rough Beginnings

The Phantom started off on a bad foot. Infinium Labs issued a press release stating that they will soon release a revolutionary gaming platform. The end. What were the system specs? What media format will the system use? What third-party developers were lining up? Who is Infinium Labs? None of these questions were answered and fans threw a fit. You can’t just come from nowhere, say you’re going to put a game system on the shelf, and disappear for five months. Not in this era.

Questions Arising

We had a reader go by Infinium Labs and take pictures of their "facility" ( that's when we found out it was a strip mall in the Florida Keys ) only to find out it was a single desk in a 100 x 100ft room with two phones and no furniture. That was about 4 months ago.

This made many people question whether Infinium was in fact a real company or just a front, perhaps a scam to fraud investors into handing over gobs of money.

The HardOCP writers took it upon themselves to further investigate Infinium and its CEO, Timothy M. Roberts. In September of 2003, HardOCP published this soon-to-become famous article:

Behind the Phantom Gaming Console

This article is very well done, and shows that Tim Roberts’ resume lists eight separate CEO positions in a span of eight years. One company is owned by his mother, and was located in a different state than where Roberts was living at the time. Several companies Roberts listed on his resume had gone bankrupt, one within a year of its beginning.

This article fanned the flames of Infinium Labs detractors.

Legal Mumbo Jumbo

HardOCP’s hard-hitting exposé drew an incredible amount of attention, including that of Infinium Labs itself. Five months later, on February 19, 2004, Kyle Bennett, editor-in-chief of HardOCP received a cease and desist letter (excerpt follows) from an international law firm, Morrison and Foerster LLP (www.mofo.com – go figure):

We hereby demand that you immediately remove the Article and Infinium's proprietary images and marks from your website and the Internet, print a retraction of the Article, and cease and desist from disparaging Infinium Labs and its principals in any way, including, but not limited to, making distorted and misleading statements about them or repeating distorted and misleading statements made by others. Your activities may provide sufficient grounds for Infinium and Mr. Roberts to assert a number of business tort and other claims against you, including, without limitations, trade disparagement and trade libel, trademark infringement, tortious interference, and unfair business practices. Furthermore, your statements and use of Infinium's proprietary images were obviously published with the intent to tarnish Infinium's image and dilute the value of its name. Such conduct is actionable under federal law, Section 43(c) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. | 1125(c), and various state laws.

After you have taken down the Article and printed a retraction, Infinium would once again welcome an opportunity to participate in a call or in-person meeting with you to provide you and your writers with accurate and complete information about the company, its products and its management. We encourage you to pursue the truth, but in the alternative, Infinium is preparing to commence formal legal action against you within ten days of this letter to halt your continued publication of false and misleading information that is causing ongoing financial harm to Infinium.

A week later, Bennett filed his own lawsuit. Detailed in this article at GameSpot, the lawsuit was what’s commonly known as a "Declaratory Judgment Act," which allows a person being threatened with legal action to force the issue to be decided, instead of it being a back-and-forth game of “My lawyers are more expensive than your lawyers!”

Attacking the gaming media is not a smart move for a company trying to prove itself as a gaming company. Infinium Labs thought they could outwit a little news website and make the derogatory article go away by paying a law firm to put some big words on a piece of paper, but in turn they branded themselves as having something to hide.

Shouting Sweet Nothings In Our Ears

Infinium Labs had still told us nothing about their game system. In March, 2003 they launched the first version of their website (http://www.phantom.net) and a brief video about the phantom. Neither were very informative at all, but they were both made by 2advanced studios, one of the best (and most expensive) design studios on the planet. The site and video might not have told us anything specifically, but it did tell us that Infinium seemed to have more than plenty of money to throw around.

For months, Infinium Labs stayed under the radar. It would be months before we heard a thing from or about Infinium Labs or their Phantom, and by that point we had all but abandoned hope for the fledgling company. It’s no secret that dreams are broken or fulfilled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, but would the Phantom be able to revive itself after a year-long hiatus with a flashy booth and girls in skimpy clothes?

Note: The contents of this page were originally printed one week after the contents of the previous page (September 27th, 2004). All mentions of dates should be considered relative to the time they were written.

A Foreword

The saga continues. It’s getting harder and harder for me to write opinion pieces regarding Infinium because, as soon as I have an outline laid out, Infinium Labs is back in the limelight for some fantastical new claim or media blunder. The past is unchanging, which is why History teachers will always have a job. Since its cursed beginning, the Phantom has always been taking flak from gamers, so there isn’t much I could accomplish by venting how I feel about this or that aspect of Infinium Labs or their hardware. Rather, it is my hope that I can help out the uninitiated by unloading what I know about the topic.

Since my somewhat-famous pictures hit the net, I’ve become the sort of informal Senior Phantom Correspondent here at Gaming Horizon, and as the holder of such a daunting title I feel it would be the most prudent use of my position and experience to chronicle these events. I do not mean to blatantly insult Infinium Labs by any of this (and I’m not just saying that because a lawyer told me to), I think only time can tell how the Phantom will be received.

I’m doing this so that the Phantom-bashers will know what they’re bashing for. I’m doing this because victories are oft forgotten, but mistakes live on. I’m doing this because if I don’t, somebody more popular than I am will do it, leaving me with nothing to do but write pithy opinion pieces.

Shake Them Maracas!

In early 2004, a few weeks before the gaming news orgy we all call E3 was scheduled to take place, we received word that Infinium Labs would have some sort of presence at the expo. Jokes were made by all, but I personally was interested to see how they played their cards. We had yet to see an actual, physical Phantom. At that point, all we had to go on was a few CGI rendered prototypes that (to me) looked like really angry alarm clocks.

The night before E3, there was a small press-only event put on by a marketing company called Pepcom. The event was eFocus, a Cinco de Mayo themed expo where hardware companies that would be showing at E3 the next day were allowed a table and a tablecloth with which to amaze the media (no billion-dollar booths). It was a nice little event, companies like nVidia and Benq Electronics (that would have obviously have been eclipsed by game studios’ fanfare at E3) had the opportunity to have a one-on-one with the press. There were tacos, there were margaritas, there were… “Hey, is that the Phantom?!”

I had probably walked by them twice before I noticed “Infinium Labs printed on a white placard taped to a table in the back corner. My heart fluttered as I looked up to the tabletop. “This is the Phantom?” someone next to me said. “Sure is,” said the man behind the table, beaming like Miss America. “Where is it,” I thought, “behind the family-size George Forman Grill?”

I must have been dreaming. I’m looking at the “System that we’ll never see?” Well, I guess this is the kind of thing that happens when you’re a game journalist: history is made. I was having to fight with a few people to get a good look at the system, and to take some pictures. When I got my hands on the keyboard and mouse thingy, I tried my best to break the interface. The guy said that the interface/GUI would be totally customizable with themes. Really? That’s nice, but can it play games?

I was told that, because they were unable to get a broadband line, they couldn’t download any games onto the system and therefore couldn’t play any. I scratched my chin, turned my head 90 degrees to the left and looked ten feet away at the Voodoo PC table where they had two computers with broadband.

Ok, well that’s 31 flavors of suspicious. Can I at least get a press kit? Nope, ran out.

Things were looking up already.

Take One Part Bright, Add One Part Shiny

The next day I woke up and was delivered by bus to my first E3. It took several hours for the shellshock to wear thin enough for me to pay any attention to what was going on. On my quest for more free t-shirts I stumbled across Infinium’s booth. Well, I can’t say I stumbled upon it – the thing was a monster.

Inside the silver walls were a half dozen “living room” setups, each with a 40 inch Plasma TV screen and a big honkin’ surround sound system, which seems like a more logical setup than a bunch of arcade cabinets with Phantoms locked behind Plexiglas. Stationed at each of these was a spokesperson armed with a microphone, demonstrating the specifics of the system. People were piling around in droves, trying to see with their own eyes That Which Shall Not Be Seen.

Whether the eFocus broadband was a lie or not, they definitely had connections at E3. Each of the systems running had Unreal Tournament 2004 playable, and a few cheap spelling and puzzle games you’d get for free in a box of Trix.

Probably the most surprising thing to come out of E3 was the announcement of the Phantom Gaming Service. Apparently, Infinium’s claims to “revolutionize the industry” were speaking of the system wherein you can pay something like $29.99 a month to be able to download as many games as you want, you even get the actual console for free if you sign up for a two year contract. If you’re not hip to monthly payments, you can just outright buy the console and pay for each game individually.

Infinium’s booth generated a phenomenal buzz. It wasn’t that the Phantom was amazing, it was that it was real. It was like seeing Duke Nukem Forever on a store shelf, something that by all rights was not expected to happen.

Obviously, their “booth” cost a fortune. For a company with no product, Infinium Labs was certainly waving around its wallet.

Maddening Silence

Nothing, and I do mean nothing happened. Infinium had gotten pretty good at their drive-by announcements, and for months after 2004’s E3 there was nary a peep from the company.

This industry lives and dies by screenshots and demo videos. Other than UT2004, we had no idea what games would be available on the Phantom. Infinium hadn’t even released the developers or publishers they were working with.

It’s stuff like this that make us question the legitimacy of a product. Had I not touched one with my own fingers, I would have been right on board with the “It’s fake!” crowd.

Infinium Watchdogs

In the months following E3, with questions on everybody’s lips, some groups took it upon themselves to find the truth.

Where Is Phantom? opened their virtual doors and became the roadmap for Infinium’s potholes. Ex-Infinium employees and overall naysayers flooded the forums, anxious to dish out the latest rumor they heard at a watercooler. WIP? is still one of the best resources for Phantom news, in fact they were the first with details regarding the outcome of the HardOCP vs. Infinium Labs suit.

Broken Piggybanks

September 8th, 2004 I reported here that, according to the quarterly financial report filed with the SEC (available in its entirety at Yahoo! Finance), Infinium Labs needed almost 70 times the amount of money they had then.

Here is their reporting of their projected costs for 2004: According to this, they need just under $70 million to stay alive through December. As of that filing, the company had a little over $134,000 to their name. What happened to the almost $10 million they earned earlier in the year? Did Infinium blow all of their money on E3 and other hype?

Legal Mumbo Jumbo Strikes Back

No “months of silence” here. Just nine days later, Where Is Phantom? reported the verdict in the lawsuit between allegedly slanderous hardware review website HardOCP and the allegedly doomed-from-the-beginning Infinium Labs.

As I summarized here, the Judge ruled that Infinium Labs must surrender a whole slew of financial documents before September 30th, 2004, including the identities of all company investors (something that had been a controversial secret), and the personal income taxes filed by Timothy Roberts, CEO of Infinium. It seems like the Judge was just as curious as to the sources of Infinium’s money as HardOCP was.

And to think, if Infinium Labs had just taken the bit of criticism and not thrown themselves in a legal battle, they would never have to reveal anything.

I’m anxiously awaiting the 30th.

Thus Concludes Our Broadcast Day

Everything that’s happened since then happened after the first part of this series went live, so you should have already read it.

Is it coming? Stop asking me. I think all the mystery surrounding the company has been mostly in regard to Infinium’s fishy finances. When reports come in as to the content of the documents turned over to the court, it may be possible to determine whether or not to expect to see a Phantom sitting next to your television anytime soon.

I hate to point out the bleeding obvious, but it is called the “phantom” after all.

Ok, that was tacky.