Entertainment & Devices is the division of Microsoft that makes the cool shit. Xbox, Zune, Windows Phone. Courier. J. Allard was its figurehead for years. He left. And now Otto Berkes, the last original Xbox founder, is gone too.

An offhand remark in Luke's look back at the early vision for Xbox Live Marketplace brings us this week's challenge: Who was Velocity Girl, and what the hell does she look like?

"We must get the internet masses to draw a mock-up of Velocity Girl," said The Sentient Meat. "Sounds like a photoshop challenge to me,"…

You may not remember her, but Velocity Girl was one of the stars of E3 2005. Young, funky and a casual gamer, she was promised the Xbox 360 would be the console of her dreams.

J Allard may have left Microsoft, leaving us heartbroken in his wake, but he leaves with some solid advice for the lumbering giant of the electronics world.

The departure of two key men involved in the Xbox 360 from Microsoft won't cause major changes in the Xbox division, a source close to Microsoft told Kotaku today. But the timing of the next steps for the Xbox brand was a factor.

It's official. Our most beloved Microsoft exec, James "J" Allard, is leaving Microsoft after 19 years. The Boston University grad tasked with injecting cool into the Xbox, Xbox 360 and Zune is moving on, leaving us with fond, hoodie-filled memories

Sources have confirmed to Kotaku that both Robbie Bach, the current head of all things entertainment for Microsoft, and J. Allard, one of the top men behind the Xbox and Xbox 360, are leaving Microsoft.

According to a report on The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is looking to "shake up" the management structure of its Entertainment & Devices Division, which among other things is the group responsible for the Xbox 360.

Say. It. Ain't. So. Reports indicate that J Allard, a driving force behind the design of the Xbox (and the Zune) is leaving Microsoft, after his latest dream project was binned by the company.

J Allard, otherwise known as Dr. J Allard, otherwise known as the man we miss from the deepest recesses of our cold, black hearts, has re-surfaced today as the driving force behind a neat-looking new gadget from Microsoft.

It never rains J. It pours. Fresh from his honorary nod at Boston University, Dr. Allard has now been spotted as one of the inventors of a revolutionary new Microsoft "magic wand".

J Allard has, tragically, been in hiding for some time now. And still is! But his name, at least, has come out of hiding. We're glad. And so, so glad that when it did resurface, it was to share the limelight with some illustrious company!

We miss J Allard! Real bad. We miss pudgy Allard, we even miss HD Allard. It was bad enough when he stopped hanging around the Xbox guys and was welcomed to the social, but over the past few months, he hasn't even been doing that anymore. He's just...faded away, without a trace. We were getting worried. Worried sick.…