Xbox president Sarah Bond recently discussed the company’s commitment to its “next-gen roadmap” and delivering “the largest technical leap” in generation. She also teased “exciting stuff” for hardware this Holiday season, which could point to a possible mid-gen refresh for Xbox Series X/S. Of course, one has to ask: What about a potential Xbox handheld?
Reports of the same go back to 2016, with former chief Xbox officer Robbie Bach claiming there were plans, but Microsoft didn’t have the bandwidth and chose to focus on the Xbox 360. When asked by The Verge about a possible handheld (especially after liking so many tweets about the same), Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer replied, “I’m a big fan of handhelds. I’m a big fan, but nothing to announce.”
However, he brought up players having access to their games at a given time. “We’re kind of learning from what Nintendo has done over the years with Switch. They’ve been fantastic with that. So when I look at Steam Deck, the ROG and my Legion Go, I’m a big fan of that space.
“We do have real work. One of the weak points in the experience on a ROG or the Lenovo [Legion Go] is Windows. How Windows works on controller input only on that kind of DPI, on a smaller eight- or seven-inch screen. That’s a real design point that our platform team is working with Windows to ensure the experience is even better.” While this doesn’t outright confirm an Xbox handheld, there is some interest from Microsoft in the same.
For now, Xbox’s hardware teams seem to be considering different kinds of hardware. “I’m very proud of the work that the hardware team is doing, not only for this year but also into the future. [We’re] really thinking about creating hardware that sells to gamers because of the unique aspects of the hardware. It’s kind of an unleashing of the creative capability of our hardware team that I’m excited about.”
Perhaps we’ll learn more about those plans in the coming months. Stay tuned in the meantime for more updates.