Chris Bardon

The Phantom-The Divx of consoles?

Well, here we go again. Haven't heard anything about this one for a while. There's a new video up on the Phantom here

The impression I get is that it's a pay-per-view gaming system with no physical game media. While having demos online (something that would motivate me to get XBL) is a good idea, I fail to see how a large game can be distributed in this manner. Given that we're getting into games that are filling a good chunk of a DVD, you're proabaly looking at a minimum size of 1 Gb for a modern console game. Even with an uncharacteristically fast cable or DSL connection, this would take far too long to download...

And maybe it's just me, but has there EVER been an "upgradable" console that worked? Look at the Sega CD, Sega 32x, etc. About the ONLY thing I can think of that took off as an upgrade is the N64 ram expansion, and even then only because people wanted to play Majora's mask and DK64. The reason I like console gaming is that you don't have to buy more hardware after the initial investment, and your game performance is consistent.

But, it will be the gaming public who will decide if this goes the route of the Xbox or the 3DO.

Morgan Jolley

To be honest, if the thing wasn't so expensive (you pay for some demos and for the service) then I think this would be a great idea. The upgrades are done either when you purchase (pay more for better features) or through software updates. The only thing is, it does seem a bit expensive and I'd prefer to be able to buy a physical copy of a game with a booklet and all.

I think the DISCover looks pretty cool. It's pretty much a hassle-free PC that ONLY plays videogames, so you can just put a game inside of it and it auto-installs the whole thing and plays it on your TV using either controllers or a keyboard/mouse setup.

Chris Bardon

Having to pay for the demos is a little strange, but I like the downloadable console demos idea. Is the ability to do this there in XBLive?

Jeff Kleist

It could be if MS decided to write an interface for it. It would require a seperate disc though, to manage the downloads.

The Phantom will tank, hard. The impression I'm given is that pretty much the entire industry is laughing at it, using a model that has proven time and time again that it bombs

Dean Cooper

funny, that nice and flashy video has sweet F all on the games themselves. I wonder who's developing for them. Looks like a great linux server to me

Mark Brewer

http://www.nvnews.net/#1061629270

Don't count on this machine at all... read the above link...

They have a office space but not much else....

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Argue for your limitations and they are yours

Mark Brewer

Chris Bardon

Yeah, I read that on PA as well. We'll have to see what happens, but it's definitely suspicious. It it's a hoax, then someone's gone to a lot of trouble to perpetrate it.

Jeff Kleist

It's not a hoax, it's just going to be the most spectacular failure since DiVX