Phantom News

[cevik]

Mindlessly stolen from PA is a http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/05/10/news_6096249.html">link to some news about the Phantom.. turns out you can get one for free if you promise to pay $29.95 a month for a year.. wait.. is $359.40 free?  I'm confused.

[Soukyan]

It's $199 if you just want to buy the system outright.

OR

In cell phone fashion, the console is free if you sign a two year service agreement for subscribing to their flagship online gaming service at the low, low cost of $29.95 per month.

[cevik]

In cell phone fashion, the console is free if you sign a two year service agreement for subscribing to their flagship online gaming service at the low, low cost of $29.95 per month.

Yeah but, their gaming service doesn't seem to gain you anything:

The basic subscription package will cost $29.95 per month, with game prices to be set by publishers, but in line with retail, says Infinium. The service will offer game rentals as well, most often priced at $5 for three days.

So $29.95 a month allows you to purchase games at prices set by the publishers that are "in line with retail", i.e. for $29.95 a month I have the convience of buying games for $50, or I can rent games for $5 for 3 days (which I guess means I can download a game and have a 3 day license to use it), but I could drive 2 blocks to blockbuster and rent a game for $5 for 5 days and it doesn't cost me $29.95 a month to do it.

So you are paying $29.95 a month to activate your device so that it will work the same as any other device.  It's a worthless fee that makes no sense.

[Soukyan]

In cell phone fashion, the console is free if you sign a two year service agreement for subscribing to their flagship online gaming service at the low, low cost of $29.95 per month.

Yeah but, their gaming service doesn't seem to gain you anything:

The basic subscription package will cost $29.95 per month, with game prices to be set by publishers, but in line with retail, says Infinium. The service will offer game rentals as well, most often priced at $5 for three days.

So $29.95 a month allows you to purchase games at prices set by the publishers that are "in line with retail", i.e. for $29.95 a month I have the convience of buying games for $50, or I can rent games for $5 for 3 days (which I guess means I can download a game and have a 3 day license to use it), but I could drive 2 blocks to blockbuster and rent a game for $5 for 5 days and it doesn't cost me $29.95 a month to do it.

So you are paying $29.95 a month to activate your device so that it will work the same as any other device.  It's a worthless fee that makes no sense.

Figures. I'm gonna wager that many consumers won't figure this out until after they've signed the contract.

[Mesozoic]

Yeah, a complete turnaround in presentation.  Note that its a receiver now, not a console.

As Cevik said, you get nothing for the $30.00 fee except the "free" games that come with the "receiver."  It looks different, but its still limited to 256 megs of RAM, so you can pretty much forget playing most recent titles.

[cevik]

Yeah, a complete turnaround in presentation.  Note that its a receiver now, not a console.

As Cevik said, you get nothing for the $30.00 fee except the "free" games that come with the "receiver."  It looks different, but its still limited to 256 megs of RAM, so you can pretty much forget playing most recent titles.

What's worse, it appears you cannot use the device without paying the $30.00.  So imagine paying $200 for your Xbox and purchasing 3 games at $50 but not being allowed to use it unless you pay another $30 a month for it.  If at any time in the future you decide you want to stop paying $30 to use your Xbox, you are SoL you can no longer play any of the games you purchased in the past at full retail price.

[Soukyan]

Yeah, a complete turnaround in presentation.  Note that its a receiver now, not a console.

As Cevik said, you get nothing for the $30.00 fee except the "free" games that come with the "receiver."  It looks different, but its still limited to 256 megs of RAM, so you can pretty much forget playing most recent titles.

Supposedly the 256 Meg of RAM is equal to 512 Meg of RAM in a PC as they are using Windows XP Embedded for the OS. The important word there being "supposedly".

[HaemishM]

Wow, that's about as stupid as stupid gets.

So I can buy the hardware with no commitment for $200 and let it sit on my coffee table as a paperweight or a boat anchor. Or I can pay $200, then pay another $30/month to actually use it to pay for games I don't own at $50 a pop (despite the game publisher having no costs except download bandwidth to give me these games) or I can rent the games for $5 for 3 days. If at any point in those 2 years my credit card cannot be processed, I then have a boat anchor. Or I can commit to 2 years at $30 a month and save the $199, and get absolutely nothing different than the person who paid for the console.

And I can't upgrade the thing, despite the fact that by the time it's released it'll be 1 generation behind in video hardware, and is currently underpowered in terms of RAM as it is. And while I understand how a console can get by with non-cutting-edge tech seeing as how all games for the console are developed for the same spec, how the fuck do they expect it to keep up with PC games which seem bound and determined to constantly push the hardware limits of even bleeding edge hardware?

[Alluvian]

In some stupid meet and greet thing that I read a transcript of they dodged the ram question by saying that you could buy different versions of the system with more ram.  The obvious was then pointed out that you still have to develop towards the 256 meg minimum or you will have people that cant play your games.  They moved on to the next question at the point.

The transcript of that meeting was hilarious.  They got slammed and just kept going on to the next question without answering anything, just digging themselves deeper.

I forget where I read that now...  I have not heard anything about buying it with extra ram since then though.

[daveNYC]

I'm sure they have some way you can download more ram over their connection.

[schild]

Game: Blue's Clues
FPS: 76.997
Ping: -6

IM PLAYING THE PHANTOM RIGHT NOW AND IT FUCKING RULEZ!!!!1111!

[Alluvian]

HOT DAMN!!!!!111!!  I want me some of that thar negative ping code!

[AOFanboi]

I can rent games for $5 for 3 days (which I guess means I can download a game and have a 3 day license to use it), but I could drive 2 blocks to blockbuster and rent a game for $5 for 5 days and it doesn't cost me $29.95 a month to do it.

Heck, man, you can "rent" a ton of games for $15 a month right now on the PC you already have.

I once wrote I cannot understand their business model. Now that they have presented it, I understand it even less. Watching Babylon 5 after this, understanding Kosh's veiled clues will seem like child's play.

[cevik]

The funny thing is, you could slightly modify this buisness model and it would go from "FUCKING ABSURD" to "Ideal".  If I could download and play 2 games at a time on a console for $29.95 a month I'd buy it in a heartbeat.  It would be just like my http://www.gamefly.com/">Gamefly account that I pay $19.95 a month for, but without the delay of mailing shit back and forth and no queues to wait on, which I'd gladly pay an extra $10 a month to accomplish.