Infinium Labs has put back the release of its PC-based games console and accompanying broadband content delivery service.

The move was made at the behest of the company's "marketing and retail partners", who say the original 18 November launch date won't favour the products.

You'd have thought that entering the US market in the run-up to Thanksgiving and Christmas would be ideal, but no, Infinium's partners reckon a post-holiday launch, when potential customers will be buying for themselves rather than others, makes more sense, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

Infinium announced the November date for the Phantom consoles and Game Service last May. Clearly, Infinium and said partners believed that a holiday launch was the best approach then. It's unlikely that the target audience has changed much, so what else may have changed?

For starters, Infinium is adamant that it's having no problems developing either the console or service. More likely, then, it's simply being squeezed out by the imminent arrival of the Nintendo DS targeting mobile gamers, the redesigned, Ethernet-enabled PlayStation 2 being pitched at home-bound players, and Halo 2 giving the Xbox a similar kick. ®

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