Microsoft's J Allard finally honors lost bet, dons dreads

by Ludwig Kietzmann { May 8th 2007 at 11:58AM }

Though it took him almost a year, Xbox 360 poster boy and accident-prone mountain biker, J (no period) Allard, has finally stepped back into the internet spotlight, draped with a dread-full wig and the aura of defeat. The utterly disturbing image above is the result of a lost bet Allard entered into with Newsweek's N'Gai Croal. The wager? Sony's PSP would not ship 10 million units within twelve months, "give or take 3 months."

Had Allard been the winner, he would have been awarded the opportunity to liberate Croal's intimidating locks. If not, he would have to slap a dread wig on his own, spectacularly bald head for an entire month and be seen with it during Microsoft's E3 2006 presentation. With Allard failing to show up during the conference, however, the lost bet was never honored. Not willing to let the matter go so easily, N'Gai most recently posted an investigation and interview into why people (hypothetically) fail to live up to their part of the bargain.

We'd normally be trite and say something about "better late than never", but having spent a few seconds looking at Allard's new visage... we find ourselves leaning towards "never."

[Via Level Up]

Tags: E3, J Allard, JAllard, Microsoft, MSFT, N'Gai, N'Gai Croal, N'gaiCroal, Newsweek, Sony

Related From Joystiq

J Allard's 'magic wand' patented ... years ago
194 days ago
N'Gai Croal to leave Newsweek for consultancy career
271 days ago
Geometry Wars 2 coming next month
504 days ago

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Arno @ May 8th 2007 12:02PM

Haha, well at least he has a sense of humor about it. :)

Jezreel @ May 8th 2007 12:04PM

Is that a 3sixteen cap? Allard knows how to represent.

sheppy @ May 8th 2007 12:06PM

He only did it because he was constantly being called out on it. And for someone who disses PSP... that system looks pretty handled.

Fatima @ May 8th 2007 12:12PM

oooh..burn to the xbots!

JodyAnthony @ May 8th 2007 12:11PM

psp is awesome

Zoinks @ May 8th 2007 12:27PM

It's good that he finally worked up the stones to man up and eat some humble pie. Letting your ego chat for you usually lands you in stupid situations - the question is, can J keep it up for a month?

The Magic 8Ball says no.

SuicideNInja @ May 8th 2007 12:53PM

"oooh..burn to the xbots!"

*tries to figure out how that is a "burn" to anyone but J*

I was surprised. I've played my PSP a handful of times...and just don't care for it. I figure it would drop off sharply, especially in light of the DS (which I also don't care for anymore).

Hasn't the PSP outsold the original Xbox and the Gamecube (individually)?

Todd @ May 8th 2007 12:54PM

Perhaps Allard should have opted for "sold" rather than "shipped" for that '10 million units within twelve months' bet.

copa @ May 8th 2007 1:03PM

One month, J Allard. One month.

Top Ramen @ May 8th 2007 1:09PM

Ha Ha. What a douche! This is a great conclusion to the ever-evolving extreme makeover/poseur extroardinaire.

Mike @ May 8th 2007 1:15PM

Anyone else notice that he's holding up a PSP that's clearly showing homebrew software running on it? That could be a gentle jab as to the reason it sold 10 million systems: the ease of piracy.

BPM @ May 8th 2007 1:21PM

Mike, that might just be a picture in the picture viewer.

Also...
J's so white and nerdy. :D

jordan @ May 8th 2007 1:23PM

that's one nappy headed ho

Digi Smalls @ May 8th 2007 1:26PM

Phil Harrison and J Allard just need to have one final Baldie-off.

there can only be one.

(as for xbots burn...is there an xbox handheld i don't know about? i wonder if Phil, Ken or Kaz would do the same thing with all the ridiculous claims they've made...)

.

bootsielon @ May 8th 2007 1:29PM

PSP has done well, just not as well as a DS. It has a bunch of great games, but the DS is a lot cheaper, rapes it in amount of great "hardcore" games, not to mention it brought a lot of innovation and expanded the market.

Anyway, why the hell is J Allard directing that FLOP named Zune? Everything that was promised for that attempt of a gadget never saw the light, or at least it hasn't and it's taking too long.

He should go back to running the Xbox team; . He's much better than Mickey "Mouse" Moore, Robbie Bach, Ozymandias, and so on. I don't like owning a console which is run by a bunch of morons that I don't like. J Allard is pretty cool though. J, Please come back.

Both next-gen consoles need a bald guy. J should be running the Xbox Team, and Phil should be in Kaz's position. He's pretty cool too.

bootsielon @ May 8th 2007 1:30PM

Digi Smalls,

lol, yeah, we agree then.

Mike @ May 8th 2007 1:34PM

@ BPM

Touché...

Lewis @ May 8th 2007 1:35PM

LMAO @ 13

Digi Smalls @ May 8th 2007 1:46PM

J Allard and the Xbox team were "put" on Zune because of their success with the 360. it wasn't their initiative. they would've started from scratch if it were, as opposed to hurredly adopting the mtv/urge and gigabeat platforms.

.

Nino @ May 8th 2007 1:59PM

PSP

PSP

PSP

All I want for Christmas is a PSP

FrankTheCrank @ May 8th 2007 2:01PM

Is this a real pic? It just looks friggin weird.

Oh my god, he'll never live this down.

Sony Computer Entertainment is going to eat this up.

Props to J for having the balls.

sheppy @ May 8th 2007 2:07PM

Props to J for doing this? He made the bet and has been dealing with ten solid months of N'Gai busting his ass over this bet.

FrankTheCrank @ May 8th 2007 2:20PM

Shep, Allard didn't have to. I'm sure he cleared this with the powers that be, Gates. He thought long and hard about it. And he deserves some credit for sticking to the bet. This has got to be professionally embarrassing.

As far as where he got that PSP, I'm sure it came from the old Microsoft copier machine room. This is where they copy everybody's ideas and make them there own.