Digital Trends

Several reports indicate that the new Phantom console by company Infiinium Labs will effectively be free. We have to wonder how this will work out though.

New details of Infinium Labs' plans for the Phantom Game Service have emerged, with company president Kevin Bachus revealing that the Phantom console will effectively be free, and providing the first pictures of the hardware itself.

Describing the pricing decision as "something we had to do," Bachus told US website GameDaily that the hardware would be provided free of charge to consumers who sign up for the Phantom Gaming Service, the broadband game and game-related content delivery system on which the console - which has no external disc drives - relies.

The service, starting at $29.95 a month, will offer users certain basic content for free, and access to either buy premium games at prices comparable to regular retail or rent them, usually $5 for three days.

"When I look at the company, what I see is a services company," Bachus said. "People were excited about the idea, but they were skeptical about the company's ability to execute."

The console features a PC-like architecture, with 256 megabytes of random access memory and a 40 gigabyte hard drive, running an embedded version of Windows XP. It will use a custom controller and support surround sound and high-definition TV.

Sources: Gameindustry.biz, Yahoo (reuters), Gamespot

Pictures and discussion can be found here:
http://forums.designtechnica.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4398