Despite high profile controversies and financial difficulties, Infinium Labs, makers of the forthcoming broadband console the Phantom, has revealed a brand new partnership with Sun Microystems; network infrastructure providers extraordinaire. Sun will create and maintain the on-demand network that will power the delivering the content that will be the bread and butter of the new system, including download streams for games and the like. Several contenders were reportedly considered before Sun got the gig.

"The Game Technologies Group's understanding of gaming, along with the broad-based expertise of the company in delivering content and services over networks, makes Sun an ideal partner for us," enthused Kevin Bachus, president, Infinium Labs. "Sun's expertise in delivering content from back-end systems to the user will now become one of our biggest assets. We can focus on offering consumers choice, convenience and ease of use with our and Java-based game service."

Java technology will be used heavily in the Phantom system, and it is expected that the network will be switched on in 2005, pending the readiment of games and the like, naturally. We'll keep our eyes peeled on this for you.

By Luke Guttridge