phantom-game-service posts

Last March at GDC, Reardon Labs announced plans for OnLive, their streaming game download service that they claim will revolutionize how we play and purchase PC game titles. There's still a lot of skepticism about if such a service can work as advertised

It certainly wouldn't be the first time an online PC gaming service didn't live up to expectations. In the beginning of the Internet/dot-com boom of the mid-to-late 1990s there were a number of online multiplayer game services that launched but later fell by the wayside. Even after the dot-com bubble burst, attempts were made to launch revolutionary services similar to OnLive. In this new feature we look back at just some of the now shut down PC gaming online services of the past.

Click on the image above to continue reading about the graveyard of failed PC gaming online services

It became a laughing stock of the gaming industry a few years ago. We are talking about the Phantom Game Service, announced as a way to bring a console-like downloadable game service with a device featuring PC hardware guts. After spending tens of millions of dollars the company decided to change its tactics. It began to promote its wireless Phantom Lapboard keyboard-mouse hardware for PC gamers. It only began to be sold a few months ago.

Now comes word that the Phantom Game Service might actually come about (and we have a bridge to sell you but we will get to that another time). According to a new press release Phantom Entertainment (the keyboard company) has agreed to sell off its game download service assets and technology to the new Phantom Game Service company so that Phantom Entertainment can concentrate on its keyboard business. There's no word on who is behind the new Phantom Game Service and a link to their web site states that it's still under construction. In other words, everything old is new again.