Tag archive: J Allard

Microsoft has closed down Pioneer Studios roughly three years after its launch, CNET reports. It was the creation of company executive J Allard, who announced his retirement just about a year ago along with Robbie Bach. Pioneer was established to develop outside the box ideas, though its failure to produce anything marketable coupled with Allard's 2010 departure almost certainly fueled the decision to pull the plug. The confirmation came… Read More

Microsoft has officially announced that Robbie Bach, the head of its Entertainment and Devices division, will be “retiring” from Microsoft this fall. The Entertainment and Devices division is responsible for things like Microsoft's Xbox business, as well as the Zune and Windows Mobile; in the wake of Bach's departure the division will effectively be dissolved, with Interactive Entertainment senior VP Don Mattrick and… Read More

Bryan Lee, the Microsoft executive most recently in charge of business development for the company's Zune portable media player, is retiring to “pursue personal interests.” Taking over the business development work for the Zune brand will be J. Allard, the man widely credited with building Microsoft's Xbox brand and Xbox Live services into a serious player in the video game console market. Lee came to Microsoft in… Read More

Microsoft has released details of the first products to ship under its new Zune brand of portable media players. The first devices will sport 30 GB hard drives, wireless sharing capabilities, and come in three colors in time for the end-of-year holiday buying season. “The digital music entertainment revolution is just beginning,” said J. Allard, Microsoft VP of design and development. “With Zune, we are not simply… Read More

“Speaking in an exclusive interview, Microsoft's J Allard has downplayed the importance of graphics in the next generation of consoles – saying that it's creativity, not visual quality, which will sell the next 100 million consoles. “We can't get all hung up as an industry and say it's all about graphic fidelity,” Allard commented. “I kind of put the 'does it look better?'… Read More

A senior Microsoft Europe executive responded to increasing speculation that it will launch its successor to Xbox at the San Jose show by saying: “It's fair to say we won't be announcing a hardware platform at GDC”. This news will come as a blow to those expecting that the show would mirror the role played by the event four years ago, when MS chief Bill Gates emerged on stage decked out in an Xbox baseball jacket to… Read More

In addition to easily finding friends and using voice communication across all Xbox Live games, players now can enjoy downloadable content, an exclusive feature that delivers new maps, missions, statistics and characters to the built-in Xbox (TM) hard drive, keeping games fresh even after a player has completed all the levels. New downloadable content for “MechAssault (TM) ,” the popular Xbox Live-enabled game from Microsoft… Read More