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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.'"
How about the numerous tests, both independent and Microsoft-sponsored that show iPods and PSP's interfacing with the 360?
Haven't certified a game yet? And launch is less than a month away? Sounds like there's going to be some supply problems in the very near future.
My Video Blog!
One of Microsoft's Corporate Vice Presidents saying the following,
It's good for them, it's good for us, and it's good for consumers.
Makes me think...
The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he does not exist.
If he really was concerned about the consumers, why not create products to plug into the Playstation/PSP or the IPod?
Forgive my cynicism, but I think the main reason is because Apple's IPod and Sony's Playstation have a much larger share than Microsoft's XBox. Of course, Microsoft would want to play "fair", since it'll benefit the XBox 360 more than it would benefit the products of the other companies.
I mean the psp is allready in enough trouble as it is...
I could see something like this working, only in turn as a marketing ploy so you would buy more 360's then PSP's ....
Although we will have to wait and see Allard certainly is saying the right things. More importantly, Sony has a slightly more powerful machine, but MS has XBox live. Any gamer knows, live is pretty sick, and PS3 has no answer to it. As more details are revealed about both systems, xbox seems to be more conducive to both large and small developers, again, bad for sony.
PS3's big plus over the xbox is Blu-ray (if it takes off). However, if the telco and cable company's multi-billion dollar push for streaming high def video over the web takes off, then hd-dvd and lu-ray will become obsolete before they hit shelfs... only good for storage.
I don't know who will win this round, but right now my money is on the xbox. Sony is loosing allot more money then MS is on each console, and the console is really that more powerful, at least according to the dozens of developers I've talked to/ worked with. I personally haven't developed for either yet, but anticipate I will sometime next year. The developers I talked too aren't in love with the cell at all. Apparently you really can't use all the cores the way you would expect.
I'm going to buy both consoles, but I'm really not the average user... it will be interesting to see how sony handles xbox's initial success this year.
Back in the day, Allard was one of the first guys to champion Microsoft's adoption of TCP/IP. Later, he got pulled into "Project 42", a disastrous attempt to come up with some Windows monstrosity that was supposed to counter thin-client platforms (like Java) but never got off the ground despite its team of fifteen hundred. After that he took a leave of absence, and only agreed to come back if he got to lead the development efforts for the Xbox and do it free of bureaucracy. They call Allard and some of the other guys like him "Baby Bills".
Tristan Yates
Q: Some people say the Xbox 360 looks the same as other systems. That it is just more of the same, just more powerful than the other systems. That it's just more graphics, more polygons, more, more, more. What will it do that is different?
A: [...] What do you want? You know, it's an interesting question. You know, do you want it to be a holographic experience that you play in your bathtub? We could have made it different... [...] And if you go too far, and you try to change the category altogether and we give you a wacky controller, or I'm going to give you wacky games that you don't really understand, and we're going to market it or price it in a wacky way, I think we would have been very much a failure.
Nowhere does neither the interviewer or Allard mention the N-word, but it's there between the lines...
Way to sell your new system. I don't know about anyone else, but I read that as 'We're really rushing this thing to market to beat Sony, and the early games might be as botched as that EA football game on the PSP, but hey! In a year from now, we'll probably have figured out how to do some really neat stuff!' And then adding on the next page, 'In the meantime, you can buy all these cool customised fascias! That's gotta be worth something, right?'
You must think in Russian.
So why would a corporation try to spin themselves as "pro-consumer"? One of two reasons:
It really is that simple. Any corporation that isn't seeking to maximize profits for its shareholders is liable for all kinds of nasty lawsuits. The only question is how many dirty tricks are shareholders willing to put up with, how nasty of a reputation can be put forth before non-captive consumers turn their backs, and just how vicious can they become before the government steps in and smacks their noses with a rolled up legal code?
If the g'vt kept the data on you that google does you'd better believe you'd be calling it "doing evil"
The reason for this is really very simple: MS was late to the market and as a result they weren't able to dominate the market. By opening up the XBox to play other formats they are opening up the market for their device. Microsoft hasn't changed its stripes. They only want to work with their competitors when its financially beneficial for them to do so.
Nice to see that this "pro consumer" attitude unfortunately doesn't extend to the video parts of the Xbox 360, which require a Windows Media Centre PC and only supports WMV.
If they'd just allowed the usual video formats, they'd have a sure fire winner. For now, I'm sticking to my Xbox with XBMC as my HTPC.
But iPods and PSPs can only be used as media storage/retrieval devices, right? Last I heard you can't use an external storage device like the iPod or the PSP as a memory card or a replacement for the XBox HD.
So it seems to me like the XBox 360 is only open in a very limited sense.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
The same iTunes and the same iPods that are 100% windows-compatible?
No, I think that Allard is realizing that there is going to be a very big fizzle at the 360's launch, with no games certified for it... and he wants to start the spin early: namely, he wants the perspective on the 360 to shift from "game console" to "digital media hub," and that's why he is needing the cooperation. Without other companies making efforts to help the 360 become a viable media hub, the console is a very expensive, but empty hardware shell.
Hmmm... all of your links contain content from this year.
Are you an idiot? What about 2002/11 don't you understand in that link? Let me spell it out for you: in 2002, Jim Heid published a book called "The Macintosh Digital Hub". Here you go: Macworld 2002 Keynote. After 30 seconds of googling, I was able to find that article, which places the original reference from Apple as Steve Jobs' Macworld 2001 keynote. Or here are live notes from the 2001 Macworld keynote (which was in January, 2001, I might add).
Also, "years" means more than one. Look it up.
"Microsoft has been working on a digital hub strategy for close to 10 years." Ha. I worked at WebTV. I did presentations in the Microsoft Home. Their strategy has been all over the map. They have tried everything they can to weasel their way out of the computer room and into the living room. I wouldn't call it much of a strategy. Apple's Digital Hub strategy has been pretty focused and consistent: they want to manage all of your digital media, from music to photos to DVD. Apple says a lot of things that are inconsistent ("no video ipod"), but unlike Microsoft or Intel, if you actually follow what they *do* and not what they say, they are very consistent and have a very coherent strategy.