Infinium Plans 4th Quarter Launch for Phantom Game Service
After multiple delays, Infinium Labs plans to launch its broadband Phantom Game Service and console in the 4th quarter this year, the company said in a 10-KSB SEC filing Wed. Infinium said it’s “currently in the development stage of operations and expects to be in that mode for at least the next 3 to 6 months.”
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The firm said it’s cooperating with an SEC investigation -- “In re Certain Fax Blasts.” Infinium said it “provided documents in response to SEC subpoenas and 2 company employees” -- including CEO Timothy Roberts -- “have testified in the investigation concerning, among other things, events at the company.” Infinium didn’t offer specifics about the inquiry. COO Kevin Bachus told Consumer Electronics Daily that the company wasn’t the named party in the investigation; he didn’t say which firm was. Junk faxes recently drew govt. criticism in the U.S.; a bill introduced in the Senate this month calls for curbs on faxing by businesses to individuals and other companies.
Of the much-delayed Phantom, Infinium said in the filing “any delays in the launch are not based on product development or content acquisition,” which it claimed are already “in place.” Rather, it said, the delays were “based upon securing the proper amount of funding required to fund the existing operating plan.” The company said it needs another $11.5 million to launch the service. Infinium said it “anticipates that it will take 120-150 days to bring the service to market, post funding.” It said “most of that time will be required to manufacture and ship the Phantom Game Receiver and to complete the Electronic Content Delivery.” The company claimed it has “hit all its internal milestones for product development, content licensing and marketing planning.”
Infinium also said working prototypes of its receiver have been built and tested, and it has “contractually secured an ample amount of premium games content to launch” the service. Although it announced last year that more than 20 publishers agreed to supply content for Phantom, it said in the filing that not all of them have finalized contracts. Publishers that signed contracts include Atari, Chronic Logic, Codemasters, Eidos, Enlight Interactive, Framework Studios, Gamerblitz, Gameware, GarageGames.com, O-3 Entertainment, Riverdeep and Vivendi Universal. Publishers that hadn’t finalized deals by the time of the filing included eGames. Major publishers Electronic Arts, Activision, Midway Games and THQ were among those that had yet to announce support for Phantom.
If Infinium fails to raise the additional $11.5 million needed for the Phantom launch, the company “has contingency plans to carry the business going forward,” it said. “One such scenario involves the company allowing other hardware manufacturers to produce the Phantom Game Receiver,” the firm said.
Infinium said it lost $33.13 million in the year ended Dec. 31 and again included a report in the filing by an independent accounting firm that cast doubt on Infinium’s ability to survive. Webb & Co. said Infinium’s recurring losses of $36 million since inception, working capital deficiency of $12.22 million, stockholders’ deficiency of $11.47 million and cash used since inception of $12 million “raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.”