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Allard 'Gets Real' With IGN
schnikies79 writes "In an interview with IGN, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President Chief Architect J. Allard said he wants to work with competitors on the XBox 360. From the interview: 'I'm pro consumer on this one to the end,' says Allard. 'Anybody in my company who thought this was a bad idea to plug in Sony or Apple devices into this thing, I ended that conversation pretty quickly. This is the right thing to do for consumers. Once they invest $500 in their digital media library, you can't ask them to go buy a 360 music player and a 360 digital camera, and a 360...NO! They got their stuff. They're going to want to plug it in. We're going to be open here, guys. And if anything, I wish we could be more cooperative with the other companies that are doing those things. And if Sony or Apple were to call me up and say, "Hey, we want to some special things with the 360," I'm on it. I think it would not be in anybody's interest to say, we're not going to work with 360. It's good for them, it's good for us, and it's good for consumers.'"
For Apple or Sony to approach him is a very large 'IF'.
Sony wants to sell its PS[n], while it may be good for the camera end of Sony or the Music end of Sony, they're probably not so far apart these days as to assist a competitor of the video game console end of Sony.
Microsoft's Corporate Vice President Chief Architect J. Allard said he wants to work with competitors on the XBox 360.
"Come in to my parlour", said the spider to the fly.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Read my previous thoughts on this matter here: http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=16623 3&cid=13866885
He may be telling the truth but I have a hard time believing him.
Actually, I may believe him but it's hard to imagine 1 Microsoft guy doing something that every one of their MBAs and Gates himself do not want.
Microsoft has been fighting open standards/interfaces for 2-3 decades.
I think I speak for all of us when I see WE'LL BELIEVE IT WHEN WE SEE IT!
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...then why are the games and system region-coded?
Why shouldn't this happen? Microsoft is never going to be on the forefront of the device market. Why not make it compatible with Apple and Sony devices? Then they can stick it to Apple and say they're open with their technologies, why is iTunes and iPod such closed devices. They are not losing market share with this ploy, but they are going to get a lot of positive PR.
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2. Extend
3. Extinguish
Or has everyone forgotten?
How can we trust Microsoft to leave open standards and not pigeon-hole us into their entertainment platform after they've spent the past 20 years doing the exact opposite to the Windows platform?
This is not about open standards. This is classic double-speak, in the Orwellian tradition. This is saying "we are opening up the Xbox 360" when what they are *really* saying is "we have the Xbox 360 and we would like all other companies to open their products up to it." He's painting MS as the good guy and backhandedly saying it's everybody else's fault if they don't want to make products that conform to MS's vision.
All MS has done with the 360 is make it mass-storage compliant. So it'll work with any other device that's also mass storage compliant. Then he says something to the effect of "but if other companies who are not mass storage compliant would like to make 360 products, we'd love to have them." In other words, "Oh, so the iPod doesn't support Janus? Well, that's Apple's fault, isn't it?"
I hope nobody is fooled by this. Of course, every company - Sony, Nintendo, MS, whoever - would love it if all their competitors suddenly started supporting their products. But business doesn't work that way. MS knows that, but they're obviously trying to sell consoles here. This is called "public relations".
Is it good that the Xbox 360 is mass storage compliant and supports Windows DRM? I guess the first part of that is ok, though nothing special, and the last part is not something I'm really interested in. But the spin that's being put on this is really intended to make MS's competitors look bad for not toeing MS's line; it's not about actually doing anything for the consumer, because MS must know that they're really not doing anything for the consumer.
How naive.
Microsoft wants to be in the living room. Badly. They'll be "open" when it comes to peripherals, but their real goal is to be the digital hub that Apple has been talking about for years. And the hope to do that with the 360. So of course it will be compatible with that Canon digital camera, and will accept videos from that Sony camcorder. But the software inside ? In your dreams.
Microsoft's certification is a GOOD thing. If they are delaying games to get them through the certification process - like drivers going through basic WHQL compatibility and regression testing - then they will arrive on your doorstep with less bugs.
This means a better reception for your console!
If Certification is granted and manufacturing can start the next day (we will assume Microsoft have some dedicated factories for this and won't be put at the bottom of the list for some subcontracted DVD fab) then they can print hundreds of thousands per day, and millions per week.
Launch units are meant to top 3 million WORLDWIDE, so they may start certifying them next week for production, and still be ready with every title of a 20-title line-up with equal share of the market.
You might get shortages of the standalone copies of popular titles but.. that's life on launch day. Since most retailers are bundling, the popularity of the titles is defined on what they THINK they can sell - and they have already been "sold" as preorders to retailers. This would determine the numbers they NEED to produce.
I would think launch day is the BEST time to make a fast production run of exactly the right amount, to cut down on wastage and warehouse stock at all levels.
Really, they may be on to something here, and it could increase sales greatly. You could use iTunes to load up your iPod, and not own a "proper" PC or Apple computer. I don't think that they are trying to compete with Nintendo at all - Nintendo has taken the Revolution far enough afield, you could almost say it is in a different genre of games console from the MS and Sony products. That just leaves the PS3. Including a feature like this could help encourage consumers to adopt the XBox 360 before the PS3 release occurs. It might be a valid selling point for homes without a PC, allowing them to use those digital devices to their full extent without a PC.
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What's he doing specifically to ensure the XBox is different than every previous "embrace and extend" Microsoft campaign? What's not different is that he's telling the media the MS wants to be "open, consumer-driven, interoperable", that they've "learned the lesson", that "this time will be different". Talk is cheap - vendor lockin is expensive.
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make install -not war
Microsoft isn't talking about having Apple and Sony release products specifically FOR the 360. What they want is to have the 360 be compatible with what you've already got - with your iPods, with your Nikon cameras, with products that aren't neccessarily all Microsoft-branded. At no point in time did Allard - or anyone else - encourage the competition to make 360 exclusive devices, although I'm sure they would love to see that happen. They're preaching openness; whether or not that's what we'll end up getting is still very much up in the air.
Besides...what's the point of having a media center sans the media? Microsoft doesn't make cameras or music players, and trying to enter those markets at this point would probably be just as costly as the first Xbox eventually was.
Goo goo g'joob.
Why is this hard to believe? Notice that he called the 360 a 'digital media library' not a 'game machine'. MS wants to get a foothold in this area, lock it up with their proprietary DRM, and force everyone else out of the market. That is their strategy - they just need acceptance from others to allow it.