Between the Switch 2, the Steam Deck, and even the PlayStation Portal, handheld gaming is greater than ever. Despite having some amazing games on the Xbox Series X and S, console sales this generation have been lackluster at best. Xbox has made plenty of gambles to try to remain competitive, resembling Game Pass and making the largest acquisition in gaming history with Activision Blizzard, however the query still stays how it is going to manage to regain its foothold within the industry after falling to date behind. One concept that has been teased over and over concerns a dedicated Xbox handheld device that has many fans intrigued. Phil Spencer and the Xbox team are still playing coy with many details, but we do know a bit about what a probable Xbox handheld could possibly be.
Release speculation
In an interview with Bloomberg, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer gave a couple of interesting tidbits about Xbox’s plans for a handheld. He said that the “expectation is that we might do something” regarding handhelds and that the corporate is currently investigating what that might exactly be through prototypes. Nonetheless, the immediate goals for the team involve improving the Xbox app for existing devices. “Long run,” Spencer said, “I really like us constructing devices. And I believe our team could do some real progressive work, but we would like to be told by learning and what’s happening now.”
If Xbox continues to be only within the prototype phase of development, any latest handheld hardware can be a few years away from hitting the market.
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Xbox handheld rumors and news
The one concrete news we have now in regards to the Xbox handheld was the previously mentioned Bloomberg report.
Windows Central’s Jez Cordon claims to have insider details about a possible Xbox handheld announcement, though it does somewhat contradict what Spencer said later. In accordance with Cordon on the Xbox Two podcast, “I don’t think you’re gonna see hardware at The Game Awards, but, I do think next 12 months is a great 12 months for revealing latest hardware. Especially hardware you could possibly hold within the palm of your hand.”
Price, hardware, and design
There’s no information to go off for the true meat of what an Xbox handheld could possibly be. That makes it unimaginable to even guess at things like price without first knowing how powerful the device itself will probably be. When it comes to design, most handhelds have fallen into a reasonably uniform form factor for the reason that Switch, and Xbox would probably not stray too removed from that. Until we see otherwise, we imagine it is going to look very much like something like Steam Deck.
