Infinium Labs Inc. will debut its Phantom Gaming Service -- the first end-to-end, on-demand game distribution service -- at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), in Los Angeles, May 12-14, 2004, at Booth 746 in the South Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center. The new service will offer subscribers a library of titles and make them available any time, day or night. The company plans to provide the service hardware free of charge to consumers who sign a two-year contract for a basic subscription to its flagship online gaming service at $29.95 per month. Consumers can also opt to buy the gaming "receiver" and required accessories without a commitment for $199, which will be credited back to their account over two years if they remain a subscriber. The Phantom Gaming Service is slated to go live on Nov. 18, 2004.
The Phantom Gaming Service has four key components: the service itself, the receiver hardware, a robust yet flexible distribution network and a large library of games. Titles will be streamed on demand over any broadband Internet connection. 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 receiver can connect to the TV and any broadband Internet connection. The receiver hardware features the AMD Athlon XP 2500+ central processing unit (CPU), the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra graphics processing unit (GPU) and the NVIDIA nForce 2 Ultra 400 platform processor.
The Phantom Game Receiver will be produced in Asia by BIOSTAR, a leading Taiwan-based contract manufacturer, and will feature 256MB of main system memory and a 40GB hard drive. In addition, the receiver will come bundled with a gamepad, a mouse and the Phantom Lapboard, an peripheral that enables players to control games designed for keyboard and mouse usage.
"Everybody loves games, both the casual player and the avid gamer," said Kevin Bachus, president, Infinium Labs. "People my age who grew up playing video games are now starting families of their own and are eager to play together. We'll have an array of titles, something for everybody. And all the consumer will have to do is sit down in front of the system, choose a title and begin to play. The service is that easy to use. We anticipate that every generation will be fighting over the controllers."
The Phantom Gaming Service will be demonstrated in an 8,000-sq.-ft. booth at E3. Visitors can come by and test the service in real-life environments, sitting on a couch or on the floor in an iconic "family room," in the gathering area at a "dorm room" or sitting at a table in a "coffee shop."
Infinium Labs, Inc. was founded by a management team with extensive experience in interactive media, entertainment, broadband services and technology. For more information, visit www.phantom.net.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
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