Shin Asura meets Yumi

After meeting the Frag Dolls I began searching the room for someone to talk with, and I came across a woman who I saw earlier that day. A friend of mine told me that a Yumi was here, however they didn’t say from where. I wondered to myself if it was a Yumi I know, she wasn’t supposed to be here so I thought she changed her mind. I was a little nervous in approaching her, however, my curiosity in finding out who she was took over. I went up, said hello and gave a brief introduction. She was very kind in her response, it shattered whatever nervousness that I previously had. It turned out that she was in fact Yumi, however, she was the PR Manager for Microsoft’s third party division. Third party support was something I felt Microsoft didn’t have much of the for the previous console so I was excited to be face to face with the person who was brought in to make the difference. We began talking, and I mentioned a few things that I felt should be changed to see an improvement. As the conversation went on, I felt to myself that Microsoft, possibly Peter Moore, did an excellent job in finding Yumi, she’s what the company needs to see any kind of improvement. Yumi then went on to speak with others at the event.

My mind was winding down a bit, it couldn’t process anymore information due system overload. Out of no where, I heard a voice in the background say something that would make my coming to San Francisco worth while. Jay Allard was coming. It was like someone had just rebooted me, I jolted up the to be ready for his arrival

Shin Asura meets Jay Allard

I met up with the group I came with from the hotel. We all had questions that we wanted to ask Jay so we made sure everyone remembered what they wanted to say. One of the questions I had was more for Peter Moore, however since he was in New York for the event there, it would be beneficial for me to ask Jay. Before we were able to ask Jay our questions, he gave a speech to the entire group. I was so excited that he was here that I yelled out, “WOO! Jay Allard is here!, he smiled and continued to give his speech”

(Here is Jay giving his speeech)

After he was done, we had to wait a little bit for our questions. The main guy for Xbox isn’t easily accessible, how many times does one get a chance to speak with the leader of your favorite gaming console? Not many. We were all patient until he became available to speak to.

Jay finally came over, myself, Johnny, Adam, and the others introduced ourselves and began our queries. We learned that Jay had just flew in from Europe to make this event, this made us extremely greatful knowing that he is thinking about the product more than his own well being. At first my mind became frozen, I guess it was some kind of stage fright, however, after a few minutes my eagerness to find out a few questions I had took over. I asked Jay what he thought of about the Japanese gaming situation. He told me that they’re working hard on providing the games the Japanese like to play. I then commented on the fact that Japan is a difficult market, it isn’t easy to make a mark there especially when a super power of gaming is already prevalent. I shared with Jay that it’s going to take some time, because once people get their minds set on something, no matter how good the competition is, it will be very difficult to make any kind of headway.

We then talked about portable gaming, Jay asked us if we thought they should go into it in the future. I commented on how Peter Moore had an interview with one of the gaming sites awhile ago, he commented on how the PSP is going to be a distraction for Sony. A distraction is the last thing Microsoft needs or wants, so I said right now wouldn’t be a good time, however, if they decided to make one in the future, I would be all for it.

Jay then told us something that he was worried about, he said that some people don’t seem to know that you can use the Xbox 360 with a normal TV. He doesn’t want an article to be published stating that, it would severely hurt the console. He asked us for our opinions and we gave a few. I stated that it would be very costly to fix if it did happen. It’s something that has to be carefully thought over and considered before a solution could be found. It’s not something that we had an answer for, so went on to other topics. After chatting for awhile, one of the Xbox 360 team members asked me if I could like to get a picture of Jay, I emphatically agreed and gave my camera to him.

(Here I am with the man, Jay Allard)

Johnny then gave me his camera and I took a picture of him with Jay.

(Here is ludcrouspeed with Jay Allard)

Jay then excused himself and went on to speak with others at the event.

We were all so very excited that we had just met Jay Allard that none of us thought to eat anything. None of us had eaten for the past 7 hours due to all the excitement we were exposed to. We went over to the serving table where they had finger foods, such as enchiladas, meatballs on sticks, and a mini burritos. We then went over to the bar to get a few drinks. Since I’m not much of a drinker, I had a cranberry/grapefruit mixture while everyone else had the usual concoction.

After fulfilling out stomachs, we went over to check out the games they had lined up. The room was dark and only lit by the TVs. playable games such as Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, and Xbox Live Arcade. They also had music playing with visualizations on televisions which were set on each side of the room.

(Here are some pictures of the cocktail party room setup)

It was around 10:30pm or so, the event was going to end at 11pm. I wanted to make sure that I had said my goodbyes to everyone that I had met, I wasn’t able to say my farewells to a few people though.

While I was downstairs, Jade Dragonfly came over to tell me that there were toque's downstairs. I was like, huh? What’s that? I went down to see what they were. It turned out that they were Xbox 360 beanies and badge holders of the seats that were provided for us.

I was hoping for some Xbox 360 badge holders though. I went back up and laughed at Jade, told her that it’s called a beanie here in the US. We then laughed at the two names the US and Canada calls them.

I said my goodbyes as the van picked our group up and took us back to the hotel.

Final update coming soon, Shin Asura meets the ultimate breakfast.