As a tech writer, I’ve seen a lot of theoretical gadgets come and go — or perhaps more accurately, never actually exist and then… continue to not exist. While it’s true that tech companies are constantly iterating, experimenting, and telling their patent lawyers to draw up scribbles, nerds like us also have a bad habit of letting our imaginations run wild.
Case in point: the Xbox handheld. Rumors of some kind of Microsoft-made competitor to the Game Boy have been floating around since the original Xbox launched more than 20 years ago. And for even longer, anyone who tries to step up to Nintendo on its stomping ground — including Sega, Sony, and Nokia — gets, well, stomped.
So why is it we’re still hearing rumblings about a new Xbox handheld game machine, a decade after the PlayStation Portable breathed its last?
It might be because Valve has bucked the trend. The Steam Deck is an unqualified smash hit, selling millions of units in just a couple of years. It has people excited about PC games on the go for the first time in a long time, and it’s so influential that we’re already seeing dozens of riffs on similar form factors from other companies like Asus, Lenovo, MSI, and Acer. All of them are using similar AMD-based hardware but running Windows instead of Valve’s super-efficient Linux-based SteamOS, so Microsoft is working with them to a greater or lesser degree.
Maybe that’s why people are once again pontificating on the idea of a portable, all-Microsoft game console. Valve has basically given them the blueprint, and Microsoft no longer needs to lean on proprietary Xbox hardware, or even local hardware at all. It might be able to leverage the popular Xbox Game Pass service and its streaming capabilities to get people invested across the console-PC divide.
Valve/Nvidia
It’s on the mind of the business heads at Bloomberg (via Android Authority) who asked Microsoft’s gaming lead Phil Spencer about it in a recent interview. Spencer confirmed that Microsoft has been “working on prototypes and considering what it might do,” in Bloomberg’s words. But it’ll be years until we might see such a device. Emphasis on “might”!
In the meantime, Microsoft is working on making the Xbox app (wherein gamers can access Game Pass downloads and game streaming) better on low-power portable gaming devices. So, yeah, don’t expect an Xbox handheld anytime soon, if at all.
It’s important to temper our expectations with a reality check. The Steam Deck is a smash hit, yes… in the context of the PC market. Valve hasn’t released total sales numbers, only saying that it sold “multiple millions” at around this time last year. Let’s be generous and assume that’s two million, and that Valve sold another two million Steam Decks since then. (If they had hit the 10 million mark, I think they would’ve made it public and celebrated.) So, under five million Steam Decks total, and perhaps half again as many in the same form factor, like the ROG Ally.
Compare that to the number of portable Switch consoles Nintendo has sold in the system’s seven-year lifetime: almost 150 million.
You couldn’t blame Microsoft for feeling a bit gun-shy going up against Valve, which had to experiment for a decade with the Steam Controller, Steam Machines, and Steam Link before it had a hardware hit. And Microsoft isn’t exactly in a position to bet big on hardware right now, being dead last in the current console generation by a huge margin.
For a massive company looking for stable returns — one that’s diversified far beyond the gaming market even if you consider it the “steward” of PC gaming — it makes sense to let partners like Asus take the big risks.
In the (approximate) words of the immortal Regina George…
Paramount Pictures
So if you’re waiting for a portable Xbox, stop waiting. Buy a Steam Deck and enjoy it. (There’s even a snazzy new white version coming!) Or maybe get a ROG Ally if you want to run Windows. Alternatively, enjoy streaming games on your phone via Xbox Game Pass or Nvidia GeForce Now, and maybe get one of those new 8BitDo controllers. The future is now, even if you have to fiddle with a few settings to make it work right.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop "battlestation" in his off hours. Michael's previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he's covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he's always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.