Earlier this week at Microsoft’s Advance08 conference, Robbie Bach and Mark Kroese presented some examples of how the company is putting the fun in ad-funded experiences on three screens – TV, PC, and Mobile devices, with content examples including Gaming , Video, Music, and Mobile scenarios.  I wanted to provide a few additional thoughts about what was shown to the audience of advertisers but with a consumer perspective.  It’s our job to make sure there is a clear value for the consumer, often in the form of “free stuff” in exchange for a sponsorship message that’s lightweight (read, doesn’t piss off the consumer) while meeting the goals of the brand advertiser who is footing the bill.  Here are a few examples:

Gaming – Among the 12M+ Xbox 360 owners, nearly 10M have Xbox Live accounts, connecting to the community to participate in multiplayer games and community activities such as tournaments.  One of the most popular features on Xbox Live are the free downloads – for example, a recent Nissan/Forza 2 Motorsport promotion involved a free downloadable car pack for in-game play, and an online tournament where the winner won an actual Nissan car. 

The Result: Over 350,000 downloads of the free car pack, and over 6.7 million game sessions played during the tournament.

Video -  Movies are universally appealing, and Xbox Live Video Marketplace is no different.  McDonald’s recently completed their “Burgercon” promotion on Xbox Live by offering a free movie download to all Xbox Live users, in this case “Austin Powers”.

The Result: The movie became the most popular movie ever downloaded on Xbox Live.

Music  & Mobile – Like Movies, Music is also universally appealing and a largely social type of experience.  Zune Social is an online community where Zune owners can opt-in to share their music interests and listens with friends.  In the past four months, nearly 2 million Zune owners have chosen to participate the new Zune Social.  One concept we’re piloting this summer is the ability to connect with artists and music events as “friends” on the Social.  The goal is to take what’s been so successful on Xbox with gaming and video, and extend that value exchange to music enthusiasts on Zune Social.  The experience is a microsite on Zune Social, offering free music and video downloads, sponsored by brands such as Doritos in the example shown and connected to music downloads from the CMJ Music Festival. 

Rule #1 is, “Put music in their ears and a smile on their face,” so we’re going to be very careful in how sponsorship messages are presented.  In the example shown this week, it’s just a background wallpaper with attribution to Doritos – no in-song ads as some have speculated.  As a Zune Social member, I'd have to opt-in to download this Zune Card, and even then, it would be presented separate from my music library.  Brand sponsorship might be displayed in album art or wallpaper on the downloaded playlist that includes a small brand logo such as the image of the Zune 80 from the demo at the right.  We've had no discussions about putting ads into song tracks or the like- that would go against rule #1!  But like game and movies downloads, someone has to pay to offer the free and legitimate download. We’re finding just like at music concerts, there are plenty of brands interested in sponsorship opportunities, in this case offering free downloads in exchange for creating a positive connection with music lovers. 

As mentioned, this is a pilot launching this summer, will always be opt-in and the team will be actively soliciting your feedback.  Just like on Xbox, the goal is to put the “fun” in ad-funded downloads with Zune.  Trust is earned and there are plenty who will assume the worst- that's part of the fun (and the challenge) of my new job.

A Microsoft VP once told me, "In the world of business, there are Pioneers and there are Settlers.  Microsoft needs both."  I've always gravitated toward the startup opportunities within Microsoft.  A few years ago, I was given the opportunity to help take a fledgling technology called, "WPF/E", name it, brand it, and launch it as "Silverlight", with my team.  The response has been phenomenal, with over 1M downloads/day and a developed balance of features for RIA-focused and Media-focused features. 

A number of months ago, I learned of a new opportunity that what right in my wheelhouse of consumer-focused digital media as a steward of user experiences in the Entertainment and Devices Division as Director of Product Planning for Ad-funded Experiences.  Looking back on the most personally rewarding times of my career so far, I've most enjoyed building teams that focus on the user experience, and deliver "free stuff" for consumers. One could argue my first attempt there was developing the original XP Digital Media Fun Pack and Powertoys, many of which included a small sponsorship message.  Following the acquisitions of aQuantive, ScreenTonic, and Massive Inc., it became clear to me where opportunity intersects with my personal interests.  Put another way, working on the Silverlight platform and seeing so many cool apps developed helped me to realize I missed having a hand in building consumer products myself.  It/s hard to leave the amazing leadership of Scott Guthrie, Soma and so many friends, but I'm not going far.

So what does the job involve?   It starts with working with many of the teams in Entertainment & Devices - Zune, Mobile, Xbox, and more to identify market opportunities where the consumer wins and brand advertisers get impressions.  This is a new area and we're going to step lightly and take feedback as we did with over 10M enthusiasts on Xbox Live who regularly download free add-ons for their games - Map packs, cars, tracks, and even feature-length movies sponsored by brand-name companies like McDonald's, Frito-Lay, Nissan, Ford, Nike, and many others.  The question is can we do the same thing for more media types and devices.  In a nutshell, that's my job - to put the fun in ad-funded entertainment experiences.

And I'm hiring. More on that later :)

By popular demand, Bill Gates' last day at the office video, courtesy of Channel 10.

Bonus points if you can name all the cameos and the song he's playing on Guitar Hero. ;)

Bill's Last Day: The CES Keynote video
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The new Microsoft at CES site is up, and it's powered by Silverlight. There are so many projects underway now it's hard to keep track of them all and this was a great one to see.   
What's more, you'll be able to watch the keynote live in-page with Silverlight or via WMP/default browser.  Take a look, spin the wheel in LV fashion and check out the latest news from Microsoft at CES.

Hope y'all enjoy the show - Sunday night @ 6:30pm

After perusing this book, I'm also convinced it's a must-have.  Thanks Kevin, my NetFlix queue will be filling up fast.  (Yep, that's right, I'm back to Netflix thanks to superior customer service and online UX, more on that at a later date).

Having just installed an Nvidia 8800 series video card, I'm off to see what Dx10 can offer. Sadly, this will be my first foray back into PC gaming in quite some time :)

Cool Tool: True Films eBook

It would look like this.

According to Joystiq and a few other outlets, the Halo theme will be available tomorrow as a free download for Guitar Hero III.  Add Mass Effect to the mix and you have two more great reasons why I love my Xbox 360.  That and watching my family groove to Paint it Black.

Sometimes there's just so much good stuff happening that I miss out.  I was browsing the Facebook community for Silverlight (nearly 1000 strong now) and a picture caught my eye.  There was  Adam Kinney's Xbox Friends Watch gadget.  Designed for Windows Vista Sidebar and built with Silverlight, pick the friends you want to track (by gamertag) and you can see online status, browse through latest games and more. 

Adam is one of my favorite inventors in our Developer & Platform Evangelism group.  Simple, yet functional.  Kudos Adam, kudos.

If you're an owner of a first-generation Zune,  now known as the Zune 30, it's nice to note that  you'll also shortly be able to use the new Zune software on your device and the new  Zune software starting on 11/13 - that's next Tuesday folks.  I'll post some thoughts here shortly after it's in the wild.

My iPhone and iTunes also took an update yesterday, pushing out a bunch of games and whatnot for the iPod.  I still don't understand why I have to reboot my PC it seems every time iTunes wants to do an update.  Oh well, off to rebootland.

My wife is addicted to Guitar Hero 3.  GH2 was the first game she's ever player in the actual store and at seven months pregnant she kind of stuck out, creating a crowd of gawkers at the lady resting the axe against her belly.  She's classically trained in cello and sight-reads like a whiz which helps, and there's no chance I'll ever, ever beat her in this game. 

But that doesn't stop us from having fun with it.  Having been drugged, bound and tied and placed into the back of an Audi, a friend told me he was going to the midnight madness launch for GH3 for the Wii and offered to pick up the game.  I figured this would be cool, particularly because of the Wii's new online gameplay.  The same way roses win favor with some wives, this would garner favor in my household.

My wife was ecstatic.  Nothing breaks up baby monotony quite like GH3. I missed the sharp HD graphics of the Xbox 360 but the gameplay was largely there, except for a noticable delay in audio effects when you missed a note and the Wiimote twanged, nestled into it's compartment in the Guitar controller.  Then, things went horribly, horribly wrong when our neighbor's daughter challenged us to an online match.

It all started with a phone call.  Apparently we needed to find the 16-digit "Friend Code" and give it to her.  Then, another call- we needed her to enter our friend code.  Then the gameplay. Setting up a game is obnoxious, with little presence information available- did your friend set up the game?  Are you supposed to?  Another phone call.  Then their wireless went out. Sigh.  Finally we get a game, and I realize I spent this money on a Wii version of what I should have bought for Xbox 360 in the first place.  Playing GH3 online with the Wii was like stepping back into the dark ages.

So, Craiglist to the rescue.  I rationalized this away to my wife, who could now unlock more songs via coop mode with Xbox 360 since we'd have two guitar controllers (one from GH2 works just fine).  Sure, she'd have to start over, but she'd also be able to play online.  Okay, she didn't buy that one but we have two guitar controllers that work now.

It's easy to say gameplay is what matters most, until you see the graphics side by side.  Chris and  Ponzi were over for dinner Saturday night and noticed the difference,  Particularly online, the frame rate during some of the hardest sequences drops suddenly and erratically on the Wii.  Xbox 360 keeps up with audio, video, voice, and easy online game matching all in one.

As a master air guitar player, I'm a sucker for this game and you never know, my sons might learn to play the real thing after watching Dad jam. Ryan told me, "Dad, you really rock" and that's all the fan base I need.

Looks like the rumors are true- Bungie and Microsoft are announcing a new relationship that apparently will give the game studio more creative control to the studio.  To be honest the relationship always seemed like an odd match culturally.  I've worked with Bungie in the past, and it was always clear they've maintained their independence through sites such as Bungie.net.  I've always respected their attitude.

If nothing else, this should ensure Bungie retains their uniqueness and enable them to continue to push the edge with new content while the Halo universe evolves simultaneously.  The press will be quick to ask if this is a separation or divorce with shared custody of the children.  Only time will tell.

Oh, and first-week sales for Halo 3 hit $300 million.

Update: Mary Jo Foley has a good assessment here.

As promised, the little elves have have been busy working on new surprises. The official Halo 3 Game Guide is now live, powered by Silverlight.  Get a sneak peek inside the game, the characters, and the story so far is this first of sure to be many game guides for upcoming Xbox 360 and Games for Windows titles. 

In addition to the game guide, we've placed new videos including "Enemy Weapon", "Believe" in HD and standard def for Mac and Windows users to enjoy in the Halo 3 Silverlight Movie Gallery.

But we heard you couldn't get enough Halo 3.  So we also posted, "The Making of Diorama", a story of the enduring survival of our species as told over a 3D snapshot of the epic battle and "Museum".  These were only shot in SD but we think you'll enjoy the higher quality originals.

Watch them all here, powered by the same Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live network you can use for your own clips.  Get your 4GB of free video space here.

On Friday, I had an opportunity to attend the Halo 3 Launch Appreciation Team party at an undisclosed location in the Redmond area.  This was the core marketing and  product management team responsible for releasing the product and it was a fun time.  Jerett, the Group manager for H3 had managed to secure eight final copies of the game for us to play and I took third in one of the rounds as a veritable noob on the final product.  All I can say is that the game still has surprises in it and the feel is so refined, so much more authentic when compared to Halo 2.  This was a good reminder that sometimes the most important meetings you have are outside the office.

By now a whole lot of you have seen the Halo 3 HD videos via Silverlight.  A question I sometimes get is why all the properties aren't done in Silverlight?  Answer is simple: we just shipped and a veritable army of vendors, creative agencies, and content providers A) are responsible for efforts such as the Halo launch and B) are being trained up on Silverlight as we speak, starting with top agencies of record.  Most of these campaigns were underway long before Silverlight was ready to ship.  Rest assured though, we'll have some more Silverlight goodies for fellow Halo 3 fans shortly. ;)

Speaking of goodies, one of my favorites is the new Halo 3 "Believe" experience.  This interactive diorama museum from the future was moving and has led to some very well produced fan commercials.  I'm pretty sure one of the prizes given away at the party was a soldier from the diorama (with a broken thumb) but it's significance was lost on me until I saw the site.

I've now had the pleasure to be involved in all three Halo launches - helping to produce the WMP skin and promotional DVD's for H1, the unveil of the H2 video in HD and 5.1 audio for the WM 9 Series Launch, and now HD and interactive efforts around Silverlight.  In my estimation, the journey has been the biggest reward.  I'm looking forward to launch day - Sept 25th.

I've discovered certain new games for Xbox 360 require that you do NOT have a "strict" or "moderate" setting in order to player match games.  Overall, you may see a performance increase in online network play if you follow the instructions found here.  They helped my situation quite a bit with a new Wireless Router.

Taking 5 minutes from new baby time tonight to check in on Peter Moore's press event at E3 - apparently Disney is releasing movie starting tonight in HD on Xbox live. My wife approves a little more.  No word on title(s) yet.

My wife and I like to play Guitar Hero II as a family event.  Our son loves to rock out, dancing and jumping around while we do. It's the first Xbox 360 game where my wife is better than me.  Not by just a little bit- she's significantly better than me, chalking it up to her classical cello training.  Well I've marked down what I'm going to get her for Christmas already- Rock Band.  Adding wireless drums, a mic, and wireless guitar/bass to the mix and this could be the ultimate party game.  Check out this video. "Welcome to the Jungle" is a good start- now if they'd just license more music for both games, I'm ready to buy.

I've received so many inquiries and kudos about the Silverlight name, logo, and brand video internally and externally that I thought I'd post the real story of how it came together.

• Naming research was completed in Q3 2006.  We decided to hold it for a special event at a later date.  "WPF/E"- the codename of Silverlight was intentionally unappealing to keep mainstream consumers from installing it until we had good feedback from the developers/designers during the alpha (CTP) preview.
• Brand work was done by my team working with an outstanding design firm I'll mention here once I have clearance to do so (by them).  We kicked this off in October, and went through many iterations before landing on the animated logo and final frame lockup.  If you don't like the frame, you can blame me Long :)  The orb is a plasmic energy being held into shape by an unseen force, where it spins and flows, almost organically.
• The brand video was done by Phoenix Edit, a group of ex-Industrial Light & Magic wonks out of San Francisco.    The goal was to show many different Silverlight-enabled scenarios woven together – designer/developer collaboration, personalized e-commerce, devices, user-generated video, viral sharing, and the network effect on sales. We intentionally avoided excessive use of text or voiceover so the video will translate globally as we kick off events around the world. For the line, "Light up the Web" - you have me to blame.  It's more about illumination and blazing a trail vs. blazing anything else ;)
• The music in the brand video is by my friend and prominent UK DJ Andy Hunter. The song is “Go” off his album, “Exodus”.  Andy consulted on the project and the remix, and has considerable street cred touring with DJ Tiesto. His songs have been used in The Matrix games, and multiple movie/television show. Andy is now on Nettwerk records working on his next release.
• Customer and partner engagement was tightly synchronized.  During initial briefs, partners were shown a slide announcing the final name as "X-Plat Player Plug-in for Browsers" in Microsoft logotype, a self-deprecating way of noting that we knew the name had to be cool and were on the ball (ironically or sadly some thought that was the actual name!).  We'd show the logo without the name, and always used the name "WPF/E" in our discussions and external communications.
• For the press announce, named companies didn't even know the final name until a matter of hours before the release hit. We intentionally didn't publish any brand elements internally and had about a dozen people total that had access.  The product management team got really tired of hearing me talk about secrecy and except for a few small nits that went unnoticed, they really did us proud.

Some day I'll post the evolution timeline of the logo if others are interested.

Every year, the publishers of Videography, DV, Digital Cinematography, and Television Broadcast magazines get together at NAB and announce the "Best of Show" award winners in multiple categories.

The Best of Show Awards are given in recognition of outstanding achievement in the advancement of the art and science of video technology, include the Videography Vidy Awards, the longest running NAB awards program, the Television Broadcast Top Innovation Awards, the DV Black Diamond Awards, and the Digital Cinematography Premiere Awards.

"To receive an award, a technology is evaluated by our panel of editors and industry experts," says NewBay Media Video Group Vice President/Group Publishing Director Doug Krainman. "The winning technologies reflect innovation and engineering excellence.

I'm elated to note that Microsoft Silverlight was the recipient of a coveted DV Black Diamond Award, in such esteemed company as Apple Final Cut Studio 2.  Congrats to the entire team!

Hot on the heels of our annoucements at NAB and the overwhelming response, I'm happy to announce the Silverlight team is growing again.  If you want to be a part of the next wave of media experiences and help to build the business to create, deliver, and experience RIAs, new job opportunities exist for the following job roles:

• Sr. Product Management - Enterprise & Solutions Engagement
• Sr. Product Management - Server & Services Engagement
• Silverlight Business Development & Deployment

All jobs are located in Redmond, WA.  Qualified candidates should have minimum of 5 years in the industry, MBA preferable with experience in the enterprise streaming and/or content delivery space.  Excellent customer/partner references are a must.  Skiing and/or 'boarding experience is a plus.

If you're interested, feel free to contact me at LinkedIn or send me email at sean@seanalexander.com with "INQUIRY:" in the title and your resume/VC. Or come find me on LinkedIn if you prefer.

The positions are located in Redmond, WA and will require some travel, about 4 days a month. It's important to note these are senior positions, with large impact on the business working directly with partners, customers, and product team to  ensure we're meeting the needs of our customers in the years to come.  Mac+Windows enthusiasts appreciated. ;)

You can see the video here.  (Note, I won't be offering Silverlight-based videos here until beta ;))

Note: Silverlight doesn't use video acceleration (such as Aero-enabled PCs) for Silverlight.  That's one of the ways we keep everythng consistent between applications.   Also resize rendering is dependent upon the browser's capabilities and refresh rate. 

I've been pretty heads down meeting with partners the past week so time to gome up for air.  Scott Guthrie, the General Manager for "WPF/E" among other things had an opportunity to do a guest spot on Red vs. Blue- the runaway hit machinima series choreographed in Halo 2.  The Channel 9 team even did a fun WPF/E-based player for it as well.

Check it out here.

Ouch and double ouch.

Teaser site here. It will be built on the Flight Simulator X engine.  My son doesn't know it yet, but this is destined to be his favorite game, provided Thomas and Friends can roll the tracks in some mod. ;)

It may also give my father a reason to upgrade his computer (purchased at Windows XP launch).

While on the show floor, I got permission from a friend to video behind the scenes at the Games for Windows Booth.  Unbeknownst to many, they were enjoying Halo 2 for Windows on DirectX 10-enabled NVidia cards, in some of the fastest PCs yet.  You'll notice a sneak peek of the Live for Windows integration announced, which will for the first time enable you to play on Windows against others.

Video: Vista Halo 2 with Live integration from CES 2007

No details on whether you'll be able to play Halo 2 on PC against users on Xbox 360, however I did notice a few maps I didn't recognize while playing, evaluating the platform.  Long Zheng has more on Live for Windows here.

Last night, I had the honor of attending the Technical Emmy Awards ceremony at CES to help accept the Emmy Award for Streaming Media Architectures and Components.  Afterwards, we went to the Vista party at the Pure Nightclub in Caesars and brought the Emmy for safe keeping and to take pictures with other team members. It was a hit with a number of old friends who helped us to get this win.  It was a shared win- there was a sense of surprise when I congratulated the Apple team on their shared win as well.

John Carmack, co-founder of iD, creator of Doom and Quake and founder of Armadillo Aerospace was one of the presenters.  When I get a chance, I'll post some video I took during the ceremony. The DirectX team was also on-hand to accept an award for their 3D engine.

Thank you to all the engineers, designers, bizdev, marketing, management who helped to make the win possible but most importantly, to our customers.

More pictures from the party on Flickr here

Let me start off by saying I'm a hard-core Xbox 360 fan and just finished Gears of War. I'm a little less addicted to achievements and points than Scoble discusses (more on that later).  What shocked me this holiday season was how we became a two-console household literally overnight.

Some friends of ours had a large tree hit their house the night of the windstorm and we decided to have them over for a pizza party.  We made fresh pizzas on the Big Green Egg, and they brought over their Nintendo Wii. My in-laws were here too, from the heartland, they had little interest in gaming.  I was concerned this was going to be too geeky for them.

I was wrong. Again.

In what started to look like a tupperware party for the new millennium, from the first time the Wiimote was "thrown", a crowd started gathering.  The kids at first, then... my wife, who on only two occasions with pleading has ventured beyond casual games in Xbox wanted to create a Mii caricature with the older kids of herself.

Then my father in law wanted to play bowling.

Then my mother in law tried tennis.

I then KO'ed my neighbor in boxing.

Which led to my father in law challenging my wife to a boxing match (she won).

Which led to my wife telling me she wanted a Wii for Christmas, and my father in law noting he wanted to get a Wii as well.

In my case, I didn't really mind the lower video quality- the gameplay made up for that.  This is what Nintendo does so well.  The Xbox 360 largely stays turned off during family events and parties unless used for showing home movies, pictures, music etc. via Media Center.  The party game aspect just isn't there and with a 3 year old in the house, there's precious little time when I can boot it up and play games around him.  Sure, arcade is fun, but Nintendo has a lock on the natural interaction model with the Wiimote and Nunchuk, the titles have less depth (so far) but fun and engaging.

So last week I did the unthinkable and stood in the cold at 6am in front of Fred Meyer with others to get a Nintendo Wii.  Since then, we've had one small party and again it was a huge hit.  My son is getting good at bowling too. 

Would I play Call of Duty 3 on the Wii? No.  That's the kind of game that for me requires the visual impact and cinematics the Xbox 360 does so well.  But there's space in my home for the Wii for all ages. We're trading Mii caricatures of famous people with friends.