Give Us an Xbox Handheld Already
Microsoft is gearing up for a giant vacation season on the finish of this 12 months. During yesterday’s much-hyped Official Xbox Podcast, Xbox president Sarah Bond teased information concerning the corporate’s {hardware}, in addition to its plans for its next-gen gaming units. “What we’re really focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation,” she mentioned.
The greatest query about Microsoft’s subsequent guess, then, isn’t whether or not or not it should proceed to make conventional consoles that plug into your tv. It’s if Microsoft will comply with within the footsteps of firms like Nintendo and Valve to make a console you possibly can carry round. Gaming has lengthy superior previous the purpose of handhelds solely offering a separate, smaller expertise; you possibly can play every little thing from battle royale megahits like Fortnite to expansive, open worlds like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and not using a full TV setup.
Other Microsoft rivals like Sony have already dipped into handhelds. In addition to the corporate’s efforts just like the PlayStation Vita, which it stopped producing in 2019, it launched PlayStation Portal—which lets you stream video games out of your PS5—final 12 months.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has expressed admiration for his rivals’ methods. During a latest interview with The Verge, he says Microsoft has been “kind of learning from what Nintendo has done over the years with Switch … When I look at Steam Deck and the ROG [handheld] and my [Lenovo handheld] Legion Go, I’m a big fan of that space.” What retains gamers from gaming extra, he says, is extra than simply sleep or the common obligations of life. “Some of it is just access,” he advised The Verge. “Do I have access to the games that I want to play right now?”
Even when requested straight about whether or not Microsoft can be making a handheld, Spencer refuted the thought. “I’m a big fan, but nothing to announce.”
Doubling down on conventional consoles this vacation season isn’t sudden. In September, Microsoft by accident leaked details about its launch plans, together with a have a look at its mid-gen console refresh and a brand new controller, by unredacted paperwork. If nonetheless correct, the paperwork additionally included info on its next-gen Xbox console, pegged to 2028, as a “hybrid game platform” that may use the cloud.
Although cloud gaming provides a gorgeous answer for some gamers seeking to keep away from the effort of a console on the shelf of their residence leisure middle, Xbox execs have at all times been agency that conventional consoles are essential to the enterprise. “When we look at our hardware … it’s where you get the most flagship, seminal experience of Xbox,” Bond mentioned throughout the podcast. “And it also represents a developer target. Our developers can build the specs of our hardware, and we invest to make sure when they do, that the games are going to run great on our hardware, but they’re also going to be able to be accessed across any screen because of all the other investments we make.”
As Microsoft opens up its video games to extra platforms, it must make its signature {hardware} extra interesting past a group loyal to the model itself. Spencer himself might agree; eagle-eyed followers have seen him liking tweets calling a handheld “inevitable.” Microsoft doesn’t must make a technological leap to make nice video games accessible; only one that allows you to go outdoors from time to time.
