Infinium Labs ready to haul HardOCP into court

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[UPDATE] Phantom maker charges Web site with dealing in misinformation and defamation, while HardOCP stands by its story.

Infinium Labs today announced it may file a legal complaint against hardware information site HardOCP for defamation. According to an Infinium PR rep, HardOCP was "one of the original sites to have spread misinformation" about makers of the to-be-released Phantom game console. The potential suit stems from a September 2003 HardOCP article on Infinium and the Phantom, which singled out the company's chairman and CEO, Timothy M. Roberts, for special attention. The article pointed out that several companies on Roberts' resume had gone bankrupt, and it claimed to have firsthand reports that the Infinium offices were a "ghost town" at the time.

In a conference call to analysts and the press, Infinium president and COO Kevin Bachus said the article was "false and defamatory," and it "painted a portrait of a company intent on swindling the public...and that is unacceptable." According to Bachus, Infinium will begin legal action within 10 days unless HardOCP removes the article from its site. Bachus said the action is necessary for the company to maintain a "credible and direct relationship with consumers."

News source: GameSpot

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(2 replies) #1 ForeverUnknown on 20 Feb 2004 - 05:28

what a bunch of crap

#1.1 LordHatrus on 21 Feb 2004 - 21:43

here here

#1.2 agenta on 25 Feb 2004 - 09:42

where? where?

(1 reply) #2 Mystnight on 20 Feb 2004 - 06:13

what the hell, the phantom is a flop anyways. Ill bet within the next 6-8 months, infinum will admit that the phantom is just vaporware, like LunarEclipse's fabled N64 emulaotr for the xbox some time ago

#2.1 NateZ on 21 Feb 2004 - 06:23

psst - its not a flop.

ps - psst - its not vaporware, they had an actual unit...

#3 Acid on 20 Feb 2004 - 06:43

it's america. you can sue for anything, but that doesn't mean you'll win

bunch of fools.

(4 replies) #4 unique on 20 Feb 2004 - 06:55

knock knock....

who's there?

phantom!

who cares?

#4.1 Spyder on 20 Feb 2004 - 14:24

lmfao that was great!

#4.2 divertom15 on 20 Feb 2004 - 19:40

thats exactly how its going to go

#4.3 Teaser on 21 Feb 2004 - 12:10

agreed, who the fu*k is gona buy a phantom? when sony and microsoft offer much better consoles? bigger companies and you know that you are safe with tham - they wont flop.

lol, the name phantom makes me lauf aswell, why are they bothering with this, they will find out wat a bunch of wollies they are!

#4.4 BTallack on 21 Feb 2004 - 23:39

Penny Arcade said it best:
Penny Arcade Comic

#5 Danrarbc641 on 20 Feb 2004 - 07:05

Just imagine how rich Acclaim would be if they could sue every reviewer who gives one of their games a bad review/preview.

Babies, can't take a little critisism huh?

#6 oo420oo on 20 Feb 2004 - 07:29

This Phantom console is going down like an 18 year old on a friday night.

(2 replies) #7 EnderDX on 20 Feb 2004 - 07:30

I would laugh if the same idiots buy this as the ones who bought the x-box because it was more expensive and the specs looked better.

#7.1 BentleyGT on 20 Feb 2004 - 15:44

A PS2 lover perhaps?

#7.2 divertom15 on 20 Feb 2004 - 19:42

i dont think its a love for the system, but a love for the content avalible for the system that makes it appealing

(5 replies) #8 Jack31081 on 20 Feb 2004 - 08:12

Wow...objective, aren't we?

Listen to yourselves....all you can say is the same crap that you've all been spewing for months? "Phantom sucks"..."Phantom doesn't exist"...blah blah blah. Are the comments true? Perhaps, but the have nothing to do with the matter at hand.

This isn't about whether the Phantom is going to suck or not. This isn't about the fact that it's taken so long to develop.

This is about a website making defamatory remarks about a company. Personally, I don't think it's defamatory when it's true. I haven't done ALL the research, but I'm fairly certain that HardOCP wasn't bull****ting when they were talking about the CEO's previous track record with running companies.

I think Infinium Labs is just pissed about the information getting out. It doesn't look good for the company. But that doesn't mean it's not true.

if this were court, Infinium could object and have HardOCP's comments stricken from the record...but this is the real world. The truth happens.

#8.1 qwertyuiop1 on 20 Feb 2004 - 09:44

I agree, stay on topic guys - this has nothing to do with the console, but the company and people behind it.

If these facts are true, then I don't hold out much hope for console.

#8.2 Teaser on 21 Feb 2004 - 12:13

YOU WORK FOR INFINIUM LABS??? THE WAY U WROTE THAT LOOKS LIKE IT!

#8.3 ffx on 24 Feb 2004 - 00:44

R U TEH AOLER? BAI DA LOKS OD DAT LOOK LIKE IT OMGLOL1

#8.4 ffx on 24 Feb 2004 - 00:46

#8.5 Beep99 on 25 Feb 2004 - 01:25

ok....if its as great a product as they claim it and the pic is indeed a prototype then why the big secrecy by these dudes?..........if they want peeps to invest in it...they show us the goods.......i dont think it can get any more simpler than that......otherwise......and it appears to me they dont want to be standup and forthcoming in this regard then they should get exactly what they get....scepticism and flak.........also consider the past track record of previous business deals.....which basically amount to ZIP...nada..........zero.......

#9 SimplyPotatoes on 20 Feb 2004 - 11:23

haha and i bet steve 100$ on that forum that they were gonna sue, wonder if he will actually pay me????

#10 g33kb0y on 20 Feb 2004 - 15:29

Farbeit from Infinium to prove HardOCP wrong. To me, it seems like HardOCP merely stated something Infinium knew to be true, but wanted to shade the public's eyes to make a few $$$.

#11 divertom15 on 20 Feb 2004 - 19:45

[H] only writes the truth and the truth is hard. specially for the phantom

#12 furii on 20 Feb 2004 - 20:25

via an article on newsforge (http://www.newsforge.com/entertainment/04/02/20/1249241.shtml?tid=114&tid=22&tid=83)

QUOTE

I have extended HardOCP.com's pledge to correct any and all possible inconsistencies or errors in our editorial entitled "Behind the Infinium Phantom Console" (http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTEy) personally to Timothy Roberts and Kevin Bachus of Infinium Labs and they have yet to inform HardOCP.com of any information we presented as being not correct. This courtesy was extended on September 17, 2003, the date the article was published and has been extended several times since then with no reply ever being received by HardOCP.com. It is my opinion that Infinium Labs' only interest is stifling HardOCP.com and our opinions. HardOCP.com still stands by our thoughts and opinions put forth in our editorial and no amount of legal badgering and frivolous lawsuits will change those opinions that we have shared with our readers.

the emphasis is mine. this looks like a whole bunch of bs to me. i'll state taking infinium seriously when something tangible (ie: not just a pretty box sitting at a table at some expo) comes to light.

#13 Garry on 21 Feb 2004 - 03:18

If you read the HardOCP article, it doesn't seem to be based upon opinion, but cold, hard fact. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the name 'phantom' isn't a little joke from our friend Mr. Tim Roberts. Infinium doesn't exist in any way other than paper and the whole thing seems to be a con. I do invite Mr. Roberts and his joke of a company to sue me for my 'obviously libellous' remarks.

#14 NeoMasamune on 21 Feb 2004 - 05:51

#15 Jack31081 on 21 Feb 2004 - 06:10

What I think Mr. Roberts has failed to realize is that it's not so easy to get into the console business.

If he really wants in, he should start a company focused on playing cards, a rice cooker, or an operating system. Then, after 20-50 years, he can go ahead and make a console.

PS - The rice cooker thing isn't a jab at sony or japanese folks...sony's co-founder's first product was a rice cooker...and it really didn't work that well.

#16 frazell on 21 Feb 2004 - 11:13

lol last time i checked the First Admendment was still alive in america...

Defamitory stuff is posted in the media all the time and they cant get sued under the First Admendment (unless its just pure lies and i doubt it was). Infinium is just wasting their own time and more of that invester money they are swindling.

(1 reply) #17 netstarman on 21 Feb 2004 - 20:27

The only reason we rag on Infinium is they failed to show any games running on the console. They were at many E.Conventions and not have even booted up a game being played ( Not one ) so many promises they admitted to , but yet failed to show. Burn us once , you dont burn us twice. great motto. and what ive been calling the system is a shoe box with a lamp cord attached to it . Its a failure , Its a joke and with all of us in the forum of the great NEOWIN ( All Hail Neowin) who have been keeping up with articles , things that were on TV, Internet articles, know that this thing is a flop. who has seen a trailer of a actual game being played on the console. Not one !!! I think all we have been asking is a game being played on it . Couldnt they have ghost a game over to the harddrive. download a game from there servers, ( If they even have a server) So they need to prove to us it works with a GAME.

#17.1 Nodiaque on 24 Feb 2004 - 15:22

Nest time, watch better the E3 show because they showed game running on the phantom... go get those E3 video and you'll see them...

#18 Garry on 21 Feb 2004 - 21:42

Looking at the things that Infinium have said about Phantom, I personally don't believe that this console even exists on paper. The things that have been said seem to be nothing but wild claims announced in order to encourage investment. Seems to me like a blatant attempt by Infinium to secure funding which, I'm certain, will 'disappear' along with all trace of 'Phantom.'

#19 Red Dragon on 24 Feb 2004 - 03:52

I'll believe it when I see it. ...and I doubt I'll see it.

#20 ABC½ on 24 Feb 2004 - 13:05

Not even tryed the console before bashing it... YOU PEOPLE ARE SAD TO READ!

(1 reply) #21 Beep99 on 25 Feb 2004 - 01:19

abc1/2.....no prototype exists......no offices exist.....just a website that makes claims it has a product that WANTS INVESTMENT...........who in his right mind is gonna lay down cash to a company that does business like that??....NO ONE!!!!!

and to boot...the founder of the company has a history of bankruptcy.........maybe bash youre head against the wall until some common sense seaps inside it....or maybe still.....invest all youre cash in it so you can come back to us all in say......6 months and tell us what a good product it really is.........

#21.1 BTallack on 25 Feb 2004 - 17:22

They do have a prototype, and there are video's showing it working, although there's no proof that it was the actual console running. It was shown privately behind closed doors. And even if it was working, it may have just been a MicroATX board in a Phantom case.

#22 Reapah on 25 Feb 2004 - 07:07

Speaking of Infinium Labs...

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