J Allard answers tough Xbox 360 questions

How does this reconcile with the fact that all the most creative games were created when the market was MUCH smaller.

Would that be because the corporate shareholder took much less of the revenue in those days.

"We prefer HD-DVD to Blu-Ray in terms of the flexibility it offers to different applications as well as the infrastructure costs to the market."

man, that guy just cant say anything nice about sony.

I remember in an interview with him in edge after 2004's e3, he was asked about the DS and psp (which has just been unveiled and blown everyone away). he complemented nintendo on their innovative system, but he just couldnt bring himself to say one nice thing about the psp.

what's it like being bill gates' bitch J?


EDIT: oh yeah, anyone else notice in their lame mtv special, how playstation was missing from the history of videogames?

Edit: YES! Like, holy f**king s**t!

Read the Peter Moore interview - he hates Sony more than anyone, presumably from the Sega days...

Its clear, though not to J Allard, that you should have a certian amount of respect for the enemy but perhaps he clearly has none or is scared to consort with the enemy camp even with some positive comment.

I do agree that compared to PS2 360 for the price you are geting a good deal, but I notice he hasn't said that PS3 can support 7 pads, wifi pads as standard and wifi out of the box (the latter something I think 360 was supposed to do), he uses the PS2, old tech as an example instead of say the PS3 or perhaps GC which might have been better suited. One things for sure though. 360 Core pack could do serious damage
to PSP sales at such a similar entry price range.



Damn did they really do that? That's a bit of twisted truth. How sad.

I saw something similar recently on MTV's Pimp My Ride. A dude had his car done in a sweet half blue/half red colour style. In the boot/trunk of his new ride where three new PSPs with which he could game with his friends, but for some weird reason (probably loyalties to MS after the 360 crap unveiling) they felt the need to bleep out Xzibit and co saying ''We got your three new ..... for you to have fun with your friends''.

We could all see what they were! MTV so totally sucks arse anyways.

Oh, c'mon, dude. I know you're new hobby is sucking Microsoft's cock. But please!

They aren't even trying these days. The whole industry is set up to piss on creativity, and to trample innovation.

Shareholders want another game like that last one that sold millions. EXACTLY like that last one.

I mean, if you're happy being the industry's bitch boy apologiste...

I now know what the J stands for: JERK or Jackass!

Innovative ways to use a hard disk...let me see ,the PC gaming scene had it like 20 years and they still haven't figured out anything innovative to do with it. Peter Molyneux tried but (again) didn't deliver. Nintendo tried with the 64DD but it flopped but i have a hunch they'll try it with the Revolution again (with that inbuilt 512 mb flash memory). If those industry big guns of innovation can't come up with a innovative use of a HDD (or flash memory) Microsoft hell won't in a hunderd years!

Using the core system to get better entry in the market trough families...or translated by the corporate BS program: we're screwing them over and abusing their marketignorance for one thing *singing* we want the money, we like the money ,we want the money.

And seriously J, Why is the 20 gb HDD priced $ 99...you didn't answer that really... you just spinned around some bottle, a empty bottle too...

That's the ranting part because he did had a few good answers too some questions.
But i hope Microsoft realizes how lucky they are that their launching first and Nintendo hasn't said/showed anything tangible about their Revolution except the stuff everyone knows.
Nintendo has a good shot at blowing the X360 out of the water if it has a lower price (very likely) and more to offer then the core package (WiFi out of the box is one, no need to buy a Memory Card is two ect.)
C'mon Nintendo show them your vengeance!

I don't think Revolution will blow anything out of the water I'm afraid. Microsoft have some major support for this new system and I can't see Nintendo getting that kind of thing.
But yeah, of course, it's EA that's supporting thiem the most. So it's mindless games for the masses. Quite frankly they can keep them. See what EA's support did for the Dreamcast!! Beautiful machine that it was.

That J guy still didn't answer the questions for my liking. The core system is pointless, there's no way around it. The PSP cheapo pack was pointless and got dropped, people didn't see it as good value and it never left japan.
But come on, Why no Harddisk? why does it cost so much? why does it link with windows media pcs and not just plain ordinary bog standard windows and where the hell is the wifi?
When they first mentioned the price, I thought it was good value, and it sort of is for that full thing, but you are still needing extras added on top.
I bet PS3 and Revo both have everything you need to get started in the one box at the one price.

So basically what's he's saying is X360'll get 50/50 something release ratio for core/deluxe packs. Now, that's alot 'entry Lv gamers'.Sure there's nothing wrong with that, but what about the games?

I suppose Japan won't see a core system launch,as they'd probably see it as an insult to their gaming code.

what did Allard do to his leg??? Ive been away for a few weeks and do not know what this story is talking about. how come you don't explain what he did? was he moving a lot of old xboxes to make way for 360's ... and dropped it on his leg?!?!

Why would he? This was an xbox360 chat not a PS3. PS3 pads are Bluetooth not Wi-Fi.




The core is designed for casual gamers, they don't care if the system had a HDD or not. I know a few casual gamers that have a PS2 or Xbox but they only play a couple of hours a week (if that), if you started talking to them about HDD's their eyes start glazing over. As long as they can pop FIFA into the drive and it works they don't care. If you don't want it, don't buy it.

HDD price, he did answer. Its £69.99 because its a 2.5 inch drive, like you find in laptops
http://www.vtec.co.uk/catalogue/hard_disk_drives_hdd/2.5_inch_notebook_drives/index.asp

£53 for a 20GB drive, xbox360 HDD £69.99. Still a bit more expensive, but factor in the extra cos of making it more durable and the extra casing...




It links with XP and Media Centre Edition, but you can only stream music off XP (needs an update). You need the Media Centre Edition to stream Video, maybe a limitation of XP?

Wi-Fi is a bit of a subjective thing... I have a Wireless router in my house. But as i live in an old house with thick walls the reception is s**t, I have to leave all the doors open from the dinning room (where the router is) to my bed room (where my 360 will be) just to get any reception and that is still really poor. So I'm glad I'm not paying extra for it as I wouldn't use it.




Where did he say that? All the talk I have heard is more of a 20/80 split between £210 and £280 respectively. Although that is not official, but I would go for that as the people who buy them at launch are hardcore gamers and early adopters that would want the HDD version.

Aristotle said that there are only 7 stories but a million variations. I think this is what TiggerUppercut meant

"In summary we tried to optimize launch around three critical audiences.

One-The game developer
Two-The hard core gamer Three-The entry level gamer

75% never played Halo"(he's a lying bastard that J)

There you have it,critical audiences(casual player) surely make up for more than 20% of MS actual audience and by the sound of it a significant portion of the market will grow thanks to them. 20%,no way man.

Casual gamers are a critical audience, they make up the majority of a consoles audience. Why do you think EA do so well? But they are not typically early adopters, which is why I think the split would be more towards the HDD bundle.

We could argue about the split between the two packages all day, but neither of us know. So what's the point?

I'm assuming you are calling Allard a liar over the "75% never played Halo" comment?

In 2004 (the only figures I could find) Halo 2 had sold 4.2million copies
Click here for 2004 Sales Figures

With Xbox having an install base of 22million(?), that gives us the following formula

4.2 * (100/22) = 19%

Now as its 2005 Halo has sold more copies. Lets say Halo 2 has sold an extra 2million copies? Which I think is a lot as games have a crap shelf life...

6.2 * (100/22) = 28%

So that's 72% of people have not played Halo 2. Still stand by your accusation?

Now Square-Enix says that you cannot play FFIX in the XBOX360 unless you have a HD,
so, there you have., buying the core pack is a waist of time,

Erm, one game does not a waste of time make. Of course you need the HDD for a game with downloadable content - how big do you think the memory cards will be?

But some people don't use downloadable content, believe it or not. And some people only want Live Silver so they have a free telephone that can call international...

Yes, there is a use for the basic package. They call them "children". Games for small kids (the Willy Wonka game and the like) have no use for a HDD except caching. You can't really sell a new machine to parents for £280, but they'll buy one for £210...