J Allard, one of the chief designers of the original Xbox, has joined Amazon, but it’s too soon to say if he’ll be working on anything related to video games.
Allard confirmed to The Verge that he is the vice president of Amazon’s devices and services team. He declined to go into specifics on what he’s working on, but said he’ll contribute to “new ideas.” Allard’s boss at Amazon is Panos Panay, the former Windows and Surface boss at Microsoft, according to GeekWire.
Allard is an Xbox legend, having worked at Microsoft for nearly 20 years. During his time there, he was instrumental in the formation of the team that created the original Xbox. He also led the development of Xbox Live and the Xbox 360. Additionally, Allard ran the team responsible for Microsoft’s iPod competitor, the Zune. Allard left Microsoft in 2010.
Allard joined Tommy Tallarico’s Intellivision as a contractor who worked with the company to finalize the hardware design of the retro-inspired Amico console. He left in summer 2020 because it was “not a good fit.”
Amazon has a video game division, but it’s unknown of Allard will contribute to it. The devices and services team he’s joining runs the Alexa and Echo products, along with the game-streaming service Luna. This team also runs the Project Kuiper project that aims to launch thousands of satellites into low-earth orbit to increase broadband access around the world.
As for Xbox, Microsoft is creating a next-gen console that aims to offer the “largest technical leap” in console history. These are just words for now, as Microsoft has provided no information on how it might achieve this or any timetable for this console’s release.
