The game is not over

Microsoft’s J. Allard sings the praises of the new Xbox 360 at the Los Angeles video gaming expo. Picture / Reuters

Day one of the E3 video game expo in Los Angeles and the queues for entry are already hundreds deep.

The power drain of the huge digital screens and speaker systems filling the Los Angeles Convention Centre has already caused brown-outs.

"It's just starting, baby," says J. Allard, settling into a chair in an air-conditioned booth at Microsoft's sprawling Xbox 360 stand.

The Microsoft vice-president and brain behind the software giant's move into video gaming has just made his play for Microsoft's gaming future - the Xbox 360.

With billions already sunk into Microsoft's video games division, Allard should be nervous. But in a rapidly expanding market where Xbox is becoming more entrenched, the reality is that things can only get better.

Walk through the aisles and halls of E3 and you'd think you were looking at a trade show representing an industry that has already reached critical mass. But Allard is predicting further rapid growth.

"It's about ready to blow up. It's like the shift from 2D to 3D, cartridge to disk, disk to online. That was the last time this industry felt like this."

Allard, who convinced Microsoft's billionaire boss, Bill Gates, to take on the video-game market in the first place, hopes the Xbox 360 will fuel much of that growth.

But competition is intense. The gaming press pulled apart last week's console launch presentations by Sony and Microsoft and declared the PlayStation 3 the winner.

Allard is fiercely competitive. He once told Wired magazine that what got him out of bed every morning was the thought of having the resignation letter of PlayStation founder Ken Kutaragi framed and hanging in his office. Kutaragi was dropped from the Sony board in January, but remains in charge of the gaming division.

"I don't care what Sony says, I care what the gamers say," Allard says of his arch-rival, which holds more than half the video-game console market.

He admits that Sony had more fresh news in its big unveiling ofthe PlayStation 3, but he is scepticalabout the content of the message.

"Sony has done a very good job of putting fancy names on their architecture," he says, adding that he was stunned that Sony didn't talk about online gaming with its console launch.

Xbox Live, the online service where gamers can join in multiplayer games over high-speed internet connections, will notch up two million subscribers next month.

"[Sony] didn't talk about online. We want to get over half of all Xbox 360s connected. The real power is power of community."

Deciding whether Sony or Microsoft delivers more advanced technology in their new machines comes down to processor speeds, floating points and integers. But Allard says the basic specifications are similar.

"[IBM] are buying the same silicon we are. It's the same budget, the same timeframe."

And he's not obsessed with the technical details.

"Graphics are not going to be the big differentiator, gameplay is. Taking graphics further costs a lot of money and it just doesn't matter."

So why bother spending billions developing new gaming technology?

"It's like getting out of a Ferrari road car and getting into a Ferrari Formula One car," says Allard of the difference between the Xbox and the Xbox 360.

Primarily a gaming device, the Xbox 360 will also fuel Microsoft's efforts to win control of the "broadband home", where it becomes the family's entertainment device serving up recorded TV, music, photos and internet access.

It's a bold play and many are critical of how Microsoft is going about it. But Allard is used to having his grand ideas questioned.

"In 2001, people told me Halo was crap and we were idiots for buying [game developer] Bungie. Four months later it was a best-seller."

Mention of Peter Jackson's major play in video games with King Kong gets a forced smile from Allard. King Kong will debut on the rival PlayStation and Nintendo GameCube consoles. Still, Allard welcomes the converging interests of the movie and gaming industries.

"I'm super-excited about the cross-over potential. You can now have a conversation with Peter Jackson or [Steven] Spielberg. I'm also excited about what music artists and producers can bring to the table."

Xbox 360 will hit the shelves in the US in December. The other two key regions, Europe and Japan, will follow. New Zealand will see the Xbox 360 some time next year.

* Peter Griffin visited E3 as a guest of Microsoft.