SEGA ADVISES IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DREAMCAST.COM
A few days ago we reported that Sega was apparently up to something for the Dreamcast's 10th anniversary via http://www.Dreamcast.com. Before running that story, we had followed several articles around the 'net and checked the site's domain registration information to make sure that it was registered to Sega, and all seemed on the up and up.
While I can't read Japanese, according to Kotaku, Sega is reporting that they have nothing to do with what's going on over at Dreamcast.com. Thankfully, the site's link has been down since we reported on it, so I'm not feeling uber-guilty about it (ah, the benefits of updating a day late and a dollar short), but as the Kotaku article mentions, if you did manage to sign up before the site went under, you may want to both change the password on the e-mail account you used and prepare for the potential deluge of spam/phishing e-mails.
Once again, SEGA SAYS THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DREAMCAST.COM SITE – DON'T BOTHER SIGNING UP OR RESPONDING TO ANY E-MAIL FROM DREAMCAST.COM – all you'll probably get for your troubles is spam and phishing e-mails.
I understand some people were also given an "e-mail address" from the site after signing up. If you even remotely used a password similar to any other ones you use when setting it up, be sure to change those passwords as well. As usual,we'll keep you posted should more information become available.
SHADY BUSINESS PRACTICES 101
If this story in the Consumerist is to be believed, BestBuy has started trying to push extended warranties for game purchases on customers. According to the article, they are not only giving the hard sell on it, but making some questionable claims about the reliability of game software;
“Today I bought Tetris DS at my local Best Buy, and they tried to sell me the 2-year protection plan or whatever it is. I refused the coverage, but I was surprised that it was offered. I’ve never received the protection spiel from a cashier when buying software… only hardware ( (I haven’t shopped at Best Buy in a while, so I have no idea if it s a recent development). After my refusal, the cashier tried to scare me by telling me “we get a lot of these things returned. I just want you to know that.” I’m mostly convinced that she was full of crap, but I’m just one DS owner… I’ve been playing video games for more than 25 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a cartridge or disc go bad on me. I had been led to believe that Flash memory is more durable than the old GBA cartridges.” -Reader Phil H. as reported by the Consumerist.
Going beyond the issue of if a 2 year warranty is really needed on a game cartridge and whether or not BestBuy is playing hard and fast with the rules as far as what they’re telling their customers, think about this… If the game breaks 2 years down the road, what are the odds that they’re still going to have a copy of it on the shelves to replace yours with? It’s not like a stereo system where “something similar” is going to cut it.
Anyway, check out the Consumerist article here, and if you pick up a game in BestBuy anytime soon, feel free to drop us a line and let us know if the same type of offer was made to you.
MORE ON THE INFINIUM NAME CHANGE
While reading Gamasutra today, I came across the following little tidbit in one of their articles on Infinium Labs SEC filing regarding a request to change their corporate name. It would appear that in addition to changing the companies name, Infinium is also seeking shareholder approval to create and sell an additional 600 million shares of stock to further fund the company. The following statement from Infinium’s filing is quoted in the Gamasutra article;
“Our Board of Directors has unanimously approved, subject to stockholder approval, an amendment to our Certificate of Incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of Common Stock from 600,000,000 to 1,200,000,000… The Board believes that the increase in authorized common shares would provide the Company greater flexibility with respect to the Company’s capital structure for such purposes as additional equity financing, and stock based acquisitions.” – Infinium SEC filing as noted by Gamasutra
Now call me crazy, but it would seem pretty convenient to change your name just before you offer a huge amount of stock to the public when your current corporate name is pretty much worthless and scandal ridden. It’s so much easier to slap a new name on this clunker and see how many more people you can sucker in.
Sure, most investors with knowledge of the industry or a good broker will know the real deal, but how many people will just hear that there’s a company called Phantom Entertainment that is trying to enter the “hot” video game market with a new game console, do a lookup and see a shiny new website that Infinium will probably put up that promises the moon, not see any negative reports about “Phantom Entertainment” and invest? Hell, it wouldn’t even surprise me if those scam stock spam e-mails suddenly started pushing Phantom Entertainment. It’s only speculation on my part for certain, and I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know much about the intricacies of investing, but that seems like a pretty plausible scenario to me.
Quite comically enough, a whois search for the domain name “phantomentertainment.com” shows that it is indeed owned by a George Townsend of Infinium Labs with the oh so professional contact e-mail of “goodhelpishard2find@hotmail.com”. We bet it is, George, we bet it is.
For the required linkage, check out Gamasutra’s article here, and our archived stories on Infinium here, here and here.
THE SCAM THAT KEEPS ON SCAMMING
Gamespot is reporting that the folks at Infinium Labs, “makers” of the Phantom game console and Phantom Lapboard are now attempting to change their name from Infinium Labs to Phantom Entertainment. For those unfamiliar with Infinium Labs who may be wondering why I’d put the word “makers” in quotes, since they announced the Phantom game console back in 2002, they have made absolutely nothing. The company seems to exist solely for the purpose of draining investors money and never having a thing to show for it. Quite amazingly, people continue to invest in the company. Perhaps Infinium figures if they change the name of the company, the stink won’t hit prospective victims noses as fast as it currently does. I guess they’ll soon be asking for a few more million dollars to blow as they try to figure out how to make a PC keyboard.
You’d think after they opened the books back in February and showed that for all the money they took in and squandered on everything but development of their product, there was still nothing to show for it, they would have just folded. Nope, not these guys, they’re here for the long haul. As listed by Infinium Labs in their SEC filing for the prospective name change;
“The Board of Directors believes that the name change would be in the best interests of the Company because the new name better reflects the long-term growth strategy of the Company.” -Infinium Labs SEC filing as reported by Gamespot
So… the long-term growth strategy of the company is better reflected by the word “Phantom”? – that sounds about right.
Check out our previous articles on Infinium Labs here and here, as well as the Gamespot article here. I still love how the Phantom console is displayed proudly on their homepage when they effectively cancelled the project to work on the Phantom Lapboard.
THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE DO INDEED TURN… JUST VERY SLOWLY
CNN Money is reporting that ex-Infinium labs chairman and former CEO Timothy Roberts has been charged with artificially inflating the stock of Infinium Labs while simultaneously selling off his shares of the company. CNN Money can explain the situation far better than I could;
” The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday accused Timothy Roberts of hiring a promoter to send junk faxes to tens of thousands of investors across the country, making it appear Infinium Labs was on the verge of launching a new gaming system, dubbed “The Phantom.” Infinium, in actuality, had postponed the system’s launch due to insufficient resources. It has yet to launch.
The SEC said Roberts made $422,500 from the scheme by selling more than 1.3 million shares of his own stock in the company – often without publicly disclosing those sales – and paid the promoter in Infinium Labs stock without registering the transfer with the SEC. Both activities violate federal securities laws. It is asking a U.S. District Court in Orlando, Fla., to force Roberts to surrender those proceeds, pay a civil penalty and be prohibited from ever again serving as an officer or director of a public company or participating in any offering of penny stock.” – CNN Money Article
It somehow actually feels great to see some of the people behind the scam that was the Phantom game console finally get some kind of legal payback. It’s still beyond me how they could have convinced anyone to pony up more money for the Infinium Lapboard after finally announcing the end of the Phantom. While I’d much rather see actual criminal allegation of fraud, at least someone is finally doing something – who knows, maybe the SEC filing will cause many of the former victims… err investors of Infinium Labs to file charges. We can all dream, right?
Click here to head on over to the CNN Money article and if you want a laugh, head on over to the Infinium Labs website here, where despite the announcement that they killed the Phantom off (at least for the time being) it’s still prominently featured all over the site.
INFINIUM LABS DELAYS PHANTOM LAPBOARD
As some may know, Infinium Labs is the company behind the now defunct and ever so aptly named Phantom game console. Back in February, Infinium finally stated what everyone knew – namely that after all the smoke and mirrors, the Phantom console was not going to be coming out – at least not anytime soon. Instead, Infinium stated that they were going to focus on their other product, the Phantom Lapboard – a custom made wireless keyboard/mouse combo that is designed to be sit in ones lap and be configurable for right or left handed use. Well, today Gamespot reports that Infinium has announced that the Lapboard will miss it’s announced summer release window and instead slip to a “No later than October” release. Sound familiar? I thought it might. How these guys keep finding suckers to invest in their scam is beyond me. Does anyone really buy that they can’t meet the deadline for releasing a keyboard? I wonder what they really spent the 5 million dollars in additional funding they got back in February on.
Check out the note about the Lapboard delay at Gamespot here and for further information, check out this news item from Gamespot back on February 21st when they opened the books and cancelled the Phantom.
NYLatenite's Gamer's Paradise 