Infinium Labs, a console designer and a digital service provider, recently said it would demonstrate its Phantom console along with Phantom Game Service in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Thursday to Sunday, January 6 – 9, 2005.

Phantom to Run Embedded Windows XP

The demonstration is said to be held in the Microsoft booth No. 7145 in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Infinium also said it would join Microsoft Mobile and Embedded Devices Division at Digital Experience – a pre-show press event where all the hottest and most-anticipated products for the show will be showcased. Digital Experience will take place at the Bellagio Hotel from 7 to 10 p.m., Wednesday, January 5, 2005, immediately following the keynote address.

Infinium Labs revealed that its Phantom game console to be launched commercially in 2005 will run Microsoft Windows XP Embedded operating system, a substantially cut-down version of the Windows XP.

Phantom – Entry-Level PC

The Phantom Gaming Service has four key components: the service itself, the receiver hardware, a robust and flexible distribution network and a large library of games. Titles will be streamed on demand from the service to a Phantom receiver over any broadband Internet connection, in much the same way as consumers receive on-demand satellite or cable television content. Subscribers will receive an initial library of free games, which will be supplemented with new choices each month as a part of their subscription fee. Additional titles can be rented or purchased. Premium content packages will also be made available.

The Phantom gaming console will be based on AMD Athlon XP 2500+ central processing unit with NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 core-logic. The NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra graphics processing unit will serve as the graphics base for the console. The Phantom will be equipped with 256MB of DDR SDRAM memory as well as 40GB hard disk drive. In addition, the part will come bundled with a gamepad, a mouse and the Phantom Lapboard, an innovative peripheral that enables players to control games designed for keyboard and mouse usage as intuitively and with as much fidelity on the couch as they are used to in the office, the company said.

The Phantom console will be produced in Asia by Biostar. The Phantom received hardware will be available for $199 initially.

Sun to Stream Content

Even though the Phantom console will use Microsoft’s operating system, the back-end infrastructure will come from Sun, a company that has always opposed to Microsoft.

Earlier this year Infinium Labs chose to work with Sun’s Game Technologies Group after evaluating the offerings of several undisclosed providers in the space, the company said. Infinium Labs and Sun plan to deploy joint marketing programs that underscore their shared vision for the video game industry.

Sun is providing architecture design and back-end infrastructure as part of the overall solution. Sun’s Java technology has been adopted by carriers, handset manufacturers and content companies that want to create and deploy advanced applications and innovative mobile data services.

Top Game Publishers to Support Phantom

Infinium said game publishers Atari, Codemasters, Eidos, Vivendi Universal and others were committed to provide content for the Phantom Game Service.

Earlier this year, Infinium announced its support of the Java 2 Standard Edition Runtime Environment and Sun’s game APIs, which will allow Java technology-based games to run on the Phantom service, just like typical PC games.

It is unclear which games would be provided for the Phantom.

$30 per Month, Will it Work?

With the receiver hardware ready, back-end infrastructure set and support from game publishers acquired, the Phantom seems to be ready to cast off.

Nevertheless, the sail is not going to be an easy one. Historically there were a number of consoles based on technologies for personal computers and aimed to bring PC gaming into the living room. None of the projects was a success.

However, Phantom is not only a console, but a service that will be available for some $30 per month, allowing to download and play an array of games without leaving the living room. The games Infinium promises to bring include the most-innovative cutting-edge titles as well as old-school PC games. Will the approach work? This remains to be seen.