An Intimate Look at Microsoft's J Allard

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Wired did a three-page piece on the main man behind the Xbox and its successor, J Allard. A Microsoft veteran, he prodded Gates and Ballmer to take on Sony and Nintendo with a fiery memo.

So when Allard cooked up another unlikely proposal in 1999, 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." ... In January, Allard and the rest of the Xbox senior executives gathered to write brief statements on what motivates them to come to work every morning. The mission: to inspire the group's rank and file. "Most people put down flowery, make-the-world-a-better-place, Miss America types of things," Allard says. "I wrote: What gets me out of bed and into the office every day is the thought of Ken Kutaragi's resignation letter, framed, hanging next to my desk."
The article does an excellent job showing the emotion and personal investment Allard has for the Xbox's success. He's even mapped out the next twenty years for the platform in a 147-page memo called "Book of Xenon."

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From The Chatty
    • reply
      May 13, 2005 3:31 PM

      isn't that what the " ... " link leads to?

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        May 13, 2005 3:33 PM

        Oh damnit. I suck at the internet.

        Nuke thread please?

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          May 13, 2005 3:35 PM

          No you've done a service. I missed the link, reading the article.

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          May 13, 2005 3:38 PM

          Nah it's prompting a little discussion around it, 'sok.

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      May 13, 2005 3:32 PM

      That totally looks like a differnt guy. Now that I think about it when I watched the ourcolony video I had no idea who that guy was but I did know the guy in the pic from 5 years ago. I would have never connected them.
      Maby he'll be allowed to go back to his regular look once the launch is out of the way.

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        May 13, 2005 3:33 PM

        He's had his 'new' look since around the launch of the original Xbox. E3 2002 at least.

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          May 13, 2005 3:37 PM

          Oh thats different then. That link made it sound like it was new this round.

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          May 13, 2005 3:38 PM

          It's a pretty fucking incredible makeover. I have trouble believing it's the same guy - they must have sent him for some plastic surgery around his eyes!

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          May 13, 2005 5:37 PM

          Yeah he'd definately lost the hair when I first saw him around the Xbox launch. I don't believe that site is criticising him for him looking less dorky, that's says far more about them than anything they could throw at anyone.

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      May 13, 2005 4:00 PM

      Wow that's incredible. Good for him. Also, that site is filled with elitist snobs.

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