is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years.
I feel like a broken record, but I’ve been writing for more than a year that the next Xbox console will be more PC-like. Now, I think Microsoft just teased its next-gen Xbox plans while announcing its partnership with Asus to bring two Xbox Ally handhelds to the market later this year.
The Xbox Ally handhelds run Windows, but the Xbox team has worked with Windows engineers to boot these PC handhelds into a full-screen Xbox UI. The Windows desktop doesn’t even fully load, and you use the Xbox app UI as a launcher to get to all your games (even Steam titles) and apps like Discord.
While the combination of Windows and Xbox here is intriguing, it’s the way that Microsoft is positioning these devices that really caught my attention. “This is an Xbox,” said Microsoft during the reveal, clearly expanding its marketing push beyond a single console to every screen and device.
It all felt like a true Xbox handheld reveal. There was even an 11-minute-long behind-the-scenes video on the Xbox Ally handhelds, filmed in a similar style to Microsoft’s “Project Scorpio” Xbox One X reveal from nearly nine years ago. “This is a breakthrough moment for Xbox,” Carl Ledbetter, a 30-year Microsoft design veteran, says in the video. Ledbetter helped design the original IntelliMouse, the Xbox 360 Slim, the Xbox One X, and plenty of other Microsoft devices. When Ledbetter is involved, you know it’s more than just a simple partner project with Asus.
“For the first time, a player is going to be able to hold the power of the Xbox experience in their hand, and take it with them anywhere they want to go,” says Xbox president Sarah Bond, in the same video. Microsoft thinks of the Xbox Ally handhelds as Xbox consoles with the freedom of Windows, and I think the next-gen Xbox is going to look very similar as a result.
Microsoft’s own Xbox handheld was reportedly “sidelined” recently, and I’ve heard from insiders that it’s essentially canceled as the company focuses on Xbox’s new software platform. I still think we’ll see next-gen Xbox hardware from Microsoft, but I also strongly believe we’ll see multiple devices from PC makers like Asus that will also be considered next-gen Xbox consoles.
That’s because the next-gen Xbox platform is being built in the open, with devices like the ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X. These handhelds seem like a market test for where Microsoft goes next with the combination of Windows and Xbox, and the company’s goal to turn any screen into an Xbox.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer made it clear in an Xbox podcast earlier this week that the Windows and Xbox teams are working more closely than ever. He also revealed this is to make the PC gaming experience more console-like:
This is the tightest collaboration I’ve seen between the gaming organization and the Windows team in my three decades at the company. For 25 years, almost, we’ve been working on a console experience where you turn it on and it works and your games are there, and how do we bring that to the Windows ecosystem so you get the freedom of Windows to use the storefronts and the apps you want to use, but it feels like a device that’s purpose-built.
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