How do you cover a Phantom console?

The unveiling of a new video game console is often a rallying point for the video game media. Web sites do in-depth, multi-page features. Magazines devote whole sections to every scrap of new information available. The entirety of video game news is put on hold when a major player like Nintendo, Microsoft, or Sony reveals any concrete information about their new systems.



Infinium Labs' Phantom console, on the other hand, seems like more of a sidenote to most news outlets.



The Phantom is perhaps a unique case in the history of console releases. Passed off by many as a vaporware joke months ago, the makers have had to fight just to get the media to believe they exist. After a delay caused by the postponement of the Ultimate Gamers Expo. (itself an odd choice for a console unveiling), Infinium finally released a promotional video and some information (including system specs.) about the console on their web site. There was little concrete information or footage of games for the system, but as we know that has never stopped the media from reporting on a system.



In the face of any system unveiling like this, there are two important questions a news outlet has to ask itself: How much coverage should we give it and how should we feature that coverage? The answers to these questions are simple when you're dealing with the big players like Sony, Nintendo and Sega. But with the glut of new system announcements over the past few months, it can be hard to seperate out the serious contenders from the pretenders that aren't worthy of coverage. In fact, the amount of early coverage can sometimes dictate how much of a chance a new system has in an already crowded market.



Then there's the question of what kind of coverage to give the system. Most sites seem willing to simply repeat the information from Infinium's web site, acting as a mouthpiece for the company line. Others went a little deeper, like this IDG reporter who actually talked to an industry analyst and an Infinium spokesman about the release (The article was picked up by PC World, among others). It's interesting that the most in-depth reporting about this story has so far come from an IT site and not a video game site.



The major news sites seemed satisfied with a small mention of the unveiling with the minimum of new reporting necessary. Gamespy had a very small story buried in its crowded news section mentioning the unveiling and linking to the official web site. Gamespot had a slightly meatier story which listed the systems specs and linked to the official site. Gamerfeed also gave the specs in the article, and paraphrased a few of the features straight from Infinium's press materials.



All three sites treated the story like any other; that is, they did not play the story up with a front page link or accompanying features or accompanying articles (at least not yet). While this may seem innocuous at first, it speaks volumes about the Phantom's image in the current video game market. Mentioning a new console in a news story is one thing; hopefully every new release would at least get that minimum of respect. Featuring that story on the front page, however, puts it in quite another league. Public relations companies are constantly fighting to get articles about their products placed in more prominent positions, and the coverage of the Phantom has been anything but prominent. Compared to the ridiculous amount of coverage the PSP has received with roughly the same amount of available information, Infinium Labs might be a little dissapointed by the scant coverage offered by these major sites (not that Infinium Labs has the weight of Sony by any means, but still).



They may be a little more heartened by sites like TotalVideoGames and GamingHorizon, both of which featured the unveiling somewehat prominently on their front pages. Gaming Horizon even got into the act before the official unveiling with a sort of preview article anticipating the press launch (to be fair, Gamespot also had an article previous to the launch, but they focused on Infinium's partnership with Gigex).



The tone of these articles matches the prominent placement on the sites: TVG said they were "certainly impressed" by the system's specs while GameingHorizon dug into the video and talked up the "variety of options" that the main system interface may contain. This is only natural; an outlet that plays a story highly is going to treat that story as more important than a site that buries it in their news section. It's a matter of defending one's news judgement. Reader's should be wary of the bias this often introduces. After all, when was the last time you saw a ten page preview that ended up bashing a game?



Slashdot did a pretty good job of covering the major talking points and providing the important links on Sunday evening, beating many of the major outlets that only update on weekdays. They later updated the story with information garnered from an interview by Gigex (a corporate partner of Infinium, which makes the objectivity of the interview a tad suspect). The interview revealed a price ceiling of $399 and a $9.95 monthly suscription fee for the system, something that most other outlets haven't reported yet.



Other link-and-quote sites gave the unveiling less coverage. Blue's News mentioned it in passing along side the XGameStation in a very short article. Evil Avatar used the news peg as a chance to editorialize about the price point ("it's gonna run 500-600 bucks") and analyze some of the more extravegant of Infinium's claims ("I'm also highly perplexed on the claim, 'More games than ANY other console'"). Spong covered the story with the highly informative headline, "nVidia’s latest home console shown -- Hot bikini action inside!" One had to look at the subhead to see any mention of the Phantom.