Giant Bomb News

J Allard in Back to School

Boston University honors Larry Bird, Steven Spielberg, and... J Allard?

Memories...
Memories...
J Allard is the gold standard for fascinatingly ridiculous corporate evangelism in the world of video games. His coffee-shop-cool image might've been blatantly manufactured, and while Reggie Fils-Aime and Peter Moore have certainly got chops, neither of them could get away with legally changing their first name to a single letter or wearing a sports jacket and a hoodie at the same time. Dude hasn't been publicly involved with Microsoft's games division for years now, but that doesn't stop my ears from perking up whenever I hear mention of his name, which inevitably leads to me secretly hoping he'll stroll out onto the stage during the next Microsoft E3 press conference to insane and thunderous applause.

This shameful process began anew this morning when Friend of Giant Bomb Rich Gallup gave me the heads-up that J Allard would be receiving an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Boston University, Allard's alma mater, alongside Michael Jordan adversary Larry Bird and Boom Blox executive producer Steven Spielberg. Can you imagine what could happen if all three of these honorees actually make it to the May 17th commencement ceremony? I would fully expect them to announce that Microsoft is publishing a one-on-one basketball game set during WWII at E3 next month. The only bummer? It would be exclusively for the Zune.
unclejohn0525 is online on May 1, 2009 at 11:56 a.m.


Venatioon May 1, 2009 at noon
Awesomeness^^^^
pornstorestiffion May 1, 2009 at 12:04 p.m.
I never understood why Allard needed to be made into a joke. There are so many other people who qualify to be made fun off, like Moore and his stupid tattoo stunt witch was more lame than wearing a hoody and sports jacket at the same time. Or that time Reggie was on stage with that horrible woman playing what ever that sword game was, also equally as horrible.
TheClapon May 1, 2009 at 12:10 p.m.
Congrats to him
Ederon May 1, 2009 at 12:15 p.m.
J, Reggie and Moore FTW. These guys were awesome. Why did they just take them off the stage? 
artofwar420on May 1, 2009 at 12:18 p.m.
I really want him to go bananas again.
KingBrolyon May 1, 2009 at 12:40 p.m.
So...what you're saying is we're never going to see Byrd, Spielberg or Jordan again?
MannAliveon May 1, 2009 at 12:44 p.m.
A new Zune is better than an iPod Classic by much.  But they never should have released that 1st generation brick.
theMcNastyon May 1, 2009 at 1:42 p.m.
J Allard FTW!
Brad staff on May 1, 2009 at 2:07 p.m.
I'm Brad and I approve of this post.
Reversefaceon May 1, 2009 at 2:11 p.m.
If only mortals could get away wih the SPORTS JACKET + HOODIE COMBO. Only a god can wears these sacred textiles.
Death_Burnouton May 1, 2009 at 2:15 p.m.
...I always wear a sports jacket and hoodie at the same time...partly because of J.

Any J Allard news is good news!
MrKloroxon May 1, 2009 at 7:13 p.m.
If he was truly hip coffee shop indie bong or whatever, he'd be all about safety pinning patches of all his favorite bands all over said sport jacket. No, better yet, all over a tuxedo jacket... with nevernude cutoff shorts. now THAT's modern!
artofwar420on May 1, 2009 at 7:53 p.m.
MrKlorox said:
"If he was truly hip coffee shop indie bong or whatever, he'd be all about safety pinning patches of all his favorite bands all over said sport jacket. No, better yet, all over a tuxedo jacket... with nevernude cutoff shorts. now THAT's modern!"

Thank you for reminding me of this :)
Thank you for reminding me of this :)


Death_Unicornon May 1, 2009 at 9:16 p.m.
Brad said:
"I'm Brad and I approve of this post."
Thanks for the lawlz. :D
Media_Masteron May 3, 2009 at 6:46 p.m.
ok, good for him

Dig Deeper into J Allard

J Allard, (born James Allard), is the former Chief Experience Officer & Chief Technology Officer, for the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. He has worked on the launches of the original Xbox, Xbox 360, and the Zune media player.

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