Still, it’s pretty fitting he had to sue them afterwards for back pay owed to him. Hope he didn’t get it.
[grudge]
Infinium Labs was basically 2 different organizations – The finance and corporate team based in Sarasota, and the product team in Seattle.
The finance team was either grossly incompetent or fraudulent (knowing Timmy, it was probably both.)
The product team was was, at worst, gullible. The basic hiring pitch from Sarasota was: “Hey! We know it’s a long shot, but we’ve got $40M in the bank to fund development… why not give it a shot?” That’s not a totally insane startup pitch.
Of course, coming back from E3 and watching the paychecks bounce made it pretty clear that the funding was a bit softer than originally represented.
Kevin fell pretty clearly on the “gullible” side of the equation, and he washed his hands of the place pretty quickly once he was more thoroughly acquainted with the money guys.
More detail than anybody needs, but it pains me to see bile directed at Kevin when our boy Tim so richly deserves it.
As an aside – explaining the Infinium entry on the resume is pretty much the most entertaining part of every interview I’ve been to since. Especially, when I share a last name with the CEO. (No relation, seriously.)
[/grudge]
About what I expected…
The idea was good.
Too bad it was only made as a scam so some people can buy yachts, speedboats, racing cars and dine in exclusive resorts while no actual professional development been made to bring a product out.
I think that, by and large, the real irony of this entire shebang (retarded VCs who were duped by Generic PR Dude #205 +25CHR to invest into this shit in some high society party aside) is that had they actually took all those millions of dollars and put them smartly onto a well oiled R&D machine they could’ve come out as the first party to deliver a unified console standard with a strong digital distribution network backbone, perhaps throw some patents and what not around the thing, and made even more money than they had gotten by scamming.
The real sad part is, had these VCs invested instead in worthy companies that produce good games and could use the extra money to lengthen production schedules and polish up the product, it would’ve done some games some real good and the VCs might’ve also seen some return on their money instead of some poor sods now getting their retirement fund slashed.
My one, only, real gripe with these kind of ordeals is how they’re not sitting in jail next to a Bubba.
Gizmondo, anyone?
(my heart goes out to Eric Peterson & co.)
though it’s certainly in bad taste to suggest that it was somehow deserved, one of the twin roberts brother died of a rumoured drug od.
The idea wasn’t good and are you suggesting prison rape now as punishment for fraud?
Careful, he cries tears of blood.
I would still buy one. I tried it back in 2004 and have wanted one since. I haven’t found anything else that comfortable or easy to use since. It had a nice build to it with enough room to move your hands without rocking it all over the place or knocking things about.
You know whenever I read interviews and some guy says “We’re pretty excited about…” I’m going to dismiss it as a scam/lie/fraud.
If you have something to show, then show it. Hype is such bullshit.
People need to take a cue from Rockstar North and GTA IV. That’s how things should be done.
Or Blizzard, amirite?
Perhaps I didn’t took too careful examination at the idea then, but I thought it was something similar to what Steam/XBL is implementing, perhaps more perhaps less?
And damn straight I am.
This isn’t just fraud, this isn’t just some brooklin bridge, we’re talking millions upon millions of dollars, people’s jobs, lives…someone got ruined from all of this, again just go look at gizmondo, it screwed up some people’s lives pretty good and it screwed up some good games’ development…and the mafioso fuckers got away with it unscathed, too; that just boils me up.
And no, Rei, death is not deserved…although if self-inflicted (such as suggested due to drug abuse) then it’s a consequence one brought upon themselves.
(And for a moment there I was worried, because my native “Roberts brothers” association is Chris and Erin, but then I got lightbulbed.)
So let’s say that Infinium Labs still exists as a working company and yet everything said about them was true–the Phantom console is a joke, they took a lot of people’s money, scammed lots of folks, blah blah, and somehow produced maybe 50-100 lapboards for customers to purchase today.
You’d still buy one.
— Alan
Yes, he will.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why capitalism dominates every market and we’re all exploited slave laborers.
Oh wow, I had no idea this was here. A bit late, but here goes: if it’s true they were scamming people, then no. Odd to run into that after so long.