A small, VC funded company hopes their broadband-only gaming console can do battle with Sony and Microsoft. Infinium Labs quickly got eyes rolling with the announcement that they were joining the broadband gaming fray with a console they claimed would have 32,679 retail game titles available by 2003. A series of vague interviews and a well designed website caught the gaming industry's eye, but details on the gaming console remained scarce until recently. An over-produced video was recently released that did little to answer questions about what the console actually was.

The "How Stuff Works" website is one of the first outlets to look under the hood of the new gaming machine. As it turns out, the console is a Windows PC with a 2-3Ghz processor, 256-MB DDR RAM, and a 100+ Gigabyte hard drive. It differs from a PC in that it doesn't have a CD-rom drive (titles are downloaded and previewed via an ethernet jack). It has S-video, RCA, and component video ports, as well as built in wireless controller connectivity.

The problem is, the Phantom will hit the market as one of the most expensive consoles available. It also has to do battle with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, two of which have a well established broadband gaming presence. At that price-point, the company is trying to squeeze into a narrow niche, with gaming consoles on the one-side, and inexpensive PC's (that do much more) on the other.

While the broadband ready-living room is a potent future market, low mainstream broadband adoption rates and strong competition from Microsoft and Sony will make the Phantom's success almost impossible.