Phantom coverage update

You may remember a little story that popped up a few days ago about the unveiling of Infinium Labs' Phantom system. I wouldn't blame you if you missed it, the story was rather hard to find on many sites.



Since my report on the unveiling, there have been a few new developments in the coverage. The first is this piece by GamesIndustry.biz that covers the unveiling a little after the fact (the story was published on the 22nd. The unveiling was the 17th. Not the quickest turnaround time on the net). In the article, GI takes Infinium to task for not revealing much new information in their unveiling:



No pricing information, no publisher support details, no in-game footage, no real specifications, and not a single developer we know - shareware or otherwise - admits to working on the platform. As unveiling events go, not a lot has been unveiled at all.



Even with extremely limited information, the GI article does some thoughtful analysis on the potential size of the system ("the device is going to be large - at least as big as the Xbox, and probably bigger") and it's relationship with Microsoft and the XBox ("the Phantom is what cynics accused the Xbox of being from the outset, and what Microsoft has spent the past three years convincing us it isn't - namely a PC") A well written article, if not especially timely.



At the end of their article, GI.biz said that the psuedo-unveiling had at least convinced the editors that it is not "vapourware." Which brings us to the next development in this story. According to a recent newspost on the widely read Penny Arcade, the Phantom may still be a hoax despite an official unveiling. (Thanks to the many readers who pointed me to this story, BTW).



Seems that some intrepid readers have done some digging (out of, "amazing boredom," one admitted) and found that Infinium has not registered trademarks for the Phantom and that their "production facility" seems to be an empty, strip mall office. If you think this sounds like the kind of stuff the real journalists should have checked before running a story... well, you'd be right. Good fact checking means checking absolutely everything, including the existence of the actual source you are getting the story from. On the internet, it's easy to take it on faith that everything that gets published is true, but this is far from the case. Almost the opposite is true in fact. One of my favorite journalism professors once gave me a good bit of advice: "If a source says she's your mother, ask to see some ID."



If the entirety of the industry has been taken for a ride by a console that is merely a publicity stunt for a video production company, it will be a chilling example of how easily controlled and lazy the video game media is. If it turns out the people at Infinium are just "absolutely inept," as PA puts it, then it will be a good example of how good public relations really drives coverage of a system. Either way... more content for me =)