Roberts Discusses Phantom's Future

In a new interview with the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Infinium Inc. CEO and president Timothy Roberts remains upbeat about the future of the company's Phantom PC-based 'console', despite continued financial and publicity issues, criticizing what he calls the "yellow journalism" of disgruntled ex-employees or other journalistic parties. Roberts commented in the interview, regarding pre-release press: "But for every naysayer we have there are 10 positive supporters. The problem is they aren't going to spend their days making positive Internet postings about us all day." It's now estimated that the Phantom will be released before the end of 2005, but that this is contingent on a hoped for cash infusion. The company apparently needs $6 million to produce the 10,000 units needed for the initial launch, along with another $6 million for marketing. However, only 25 Phantom consoles are currently in existence. The company is currently wrestling legal problems with venture capital firm SBI-USA, following allegations that Infinium Labs broke an exclusivity deal, and an independent investigation of the company at financial site Stockpatrol raises questions regarding a scheme whereby faxes sent to potential investors tried to encourage stock purchases to quickly increase prices (though the company involved is seemingly unrelated to Infinium.) Even so, Infinium reported a net loss of $7.67 million for the three months ended September 30th, 2004, according to its most recent quarterly filing, leaving it with just $21,000 in the bank. Despite this, representatives from Infinium Labs have announced that its Phantom Game Service will be demonstrated on Microsoft’s booth in San Francisco’s Moscone Center during CMP Media’s Embedded Systems Conference (ESC), due to run from March 6th to 10th. Interestingly, the conference runs concurrently with the Game Developers Conference, which is held at Moscone West, but it seems the Phantom will have no official presence there. The Phantom has earned its place on Microsoft’s booth due to its use of Windows XP Embedded.