J Allard and Xbox Project Article on Wired.com

Date: Sunday, May 22 @ 00:15:02 UTC
Topic: Xbox 360

' Wired.com posted a very interesting article about J Allard, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President and Chief XNA™ Architect, and Xbox project a few days ago '

Allard is all about uphill climbs. He helped drive Microsoft's entry into the Internet arena in 1994 and, in 1999, persuaded Bill Gates to build a videogame console and take on the powerhouse of the gaming business, Sony. Now, after a six-year ascent, Allard claims he can finally see the crest of the hill.

Allard is not exactly your typical Microsoft employee. Spend a bit of time with the man and you begin to see him as a wag on the loose inside the Microsoft campus, saying and doing his own thing regardless of whether it jibes with corporate strategy. He uses an Apple PowerBook, fires off rambling, profanity-laced emails to his superiors, and has a knack for, well, thinking different. He also has the respect of Gates and Ballmer. So when Allard cooked up another unlikely proposal in 1999 [note x-s: the orginal Xbox project], his bosses paid attention. Ballmer remembers thinking that Allard's proposal was over-the-top. "Bill called me up and said, 'Let's get this thing fired up.' I said, 'Um, this is pretty different, pretty bold.' Actually, 'wacky' was probably more like it," Ballmer remembers. "I didn't say, 'Stop,' but I pushed back pretty hard. There's no way to muscle in on guys like Sony and Nintendo using just sheer resources."

He believes that for the Xbox platform to thrive, it must first trounce Sony in the gaming space. That means getting the hardcore gamers on board. "If we can get the first couple million Xbox 360s into the hands of the serious gamers, we can get to 10 million first," he says. "And the first guy to sell 10 million units wins."

News-Source: http://www.wired.com



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