Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Infinium gets a name change

Still no sign of the Phantom.

More than three years after it was first announced, there's still no sign of the Phantom, the games-on-demand console that was supposed to be The Future. But the company behind it, Infinium labs, has at least found time to change its name - it'll now be known as Phantom Entertainment.

The name change coincides with a move by the board of directors to double the number of authorised shares of common stock to 1.2 billion, which probably means something to rich city types.

Could be they're trying to find extra funds to pay off former CEO Kevin Bachus, who's suing the company for "unpaid wages and accrued and unpaid personal time off" - to the tune of $50,997. Phantom Entertainment "plans to defend itself vigorously in this matter", apparently.

A new financial reports shows the company has lost more than $69 million since startup, and last year's loss stood at $29.8 million. According to Phantom, "In their report on our audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2005, our independent auditors expressed substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern." Oh dear.

Still, there's always the Phantom Lapboard to look forward to - you know, the wireless keyboard and mouse peripheral which was announced back in January. It was due for a "mid 2006" but, er, there's no sign of it as yet.