E3 Notebook: Xbox 360

Staff Reporter Troy Wolverton is in Los Angeles to attend the Electronic Entertainment Exposition -- better known as E3 -- which is the video-game industry's giant annual gathering. He's filing occasional dispatches on news, rumors, sights and thoughts from the show.

Thursday

My last day at E3 began with a meeting with J. Allard, a vice president at Microsoft (MSFT Quote), who heads up Xbox development. A more extensive question-and-answer article with Allard will run in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, here are some excerpts:

Allard and Microsoft believe that timing will be a key factor in the Xbox 360's success. Microsoft didn't release the Xbox until 19 months after Sony(SNE Quote) put out the PlayStation 2, he noted. And even then, the device was a kind of rush job, Allard suggested. The Xbox team hadn't yet jelled by the time the device launched, the company didn't have a big relationship with industry titan Electronic Arts (ERTS Quote) at the time, and the company was essentially forced to go with off-the-shelf hardware, Allard said. All that combined to give Sony an insurmountable lead. ...