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.'"

Comments

Satire?

[RealNitro]

I bet it'll turn out to be satire in the end.

Re:Is Allard still working for MS today?

[Rude Turnip]

I just hope he clears the room of chairs before having a meeting with Steve Balmer.

Large 'IF'

[ackthpt]

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.

Sounds like he has other things to worry about

[CuteVlogger]

Q: How about Microsoft? Will you be shipping your first-party games a week before launch?
Allard: I don't know. Haven't certified a game yet. There is no game in manufacturing yet, that's the only thing I can attest to. And when we do, you know, retailers did that a little with Xbox, it's going to be a retail by retail decision. I don't think we're doing anything to try and coordinate that.

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.

I actually AGREE with you bud

[Work Account]

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!

Microsoft educates the consumer

[Sam Haine '95]

*kicks consumer in the nuts*

"Hey buddy, I'm not kicking you in the nuts!"

*kicks consumer in the nuts*

If the 360 is so consumer-friendly...

[wheresdrew]

...then why are the games and system region-coded?

Why not?

[BrGaribaldi]

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.

Re:Sorry friends but i DO NOT believe this guy

[badasscat]

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.

Hmm....

[borawjm]

They're going to want to plug it in. [...] And if Sony or Apple were to call me up and say, "Hey, we want to some special things with the 360,"

and I'm sure they are going to tell them where they can plug it in.

Allard = Baby Bill

[tyates]

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".

Re:what does the slashdot crowd do

[Tetard]

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.

From TFA

[payndz]

Basically what happens when you get final hardware late, you're sloppy. With all deference to the developers, you've got to take every out you can and so they're not applying all their talents, as they will next year and the year after to get every little bit they can out of it. They're being a little sloppy with the CPU, they're being a little sloppy with the discs, they're being a little sloppy with their formats and compression to make launch. And next year, you'll see that they tighten that up so they can get more out of the system using the same disc capacity, using the same compression, and the same art tools, and so they'll get a lot more out of the system next year.

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?'