They are, until xbox makes one. There are more merits then demerits in making one. Although it won’t come without accepting some limitations.
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Good discussion. It’s an interesting topic, especially with the growing pc handheld market and more rumours of a Nintendo switch 2 coming this fall. Xbox portable would have to be its own platform. Only connected to the series consoles through streaming via cloud and direct console streaming like the portal. It can’t hold the main consoles back as an even lower spec to program and design for. But this shows its biggest hurdle, making sure 3rd party supports it. If the Switch 2 is being supported, then Xbox would have to convince those publishers to support the Xbox portable. I would definitely like to have one, but this is a massive endeavour.
With a portable console based on the Series S specs it would be the same target. They just need to create the series x and series S versions of games.
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You can play halo on the steam deck without windows.
But yes other games like cod and Fortnite aren’t proton compatible - due to their developers not caring to make them.
But I’m not sure I agree that Xbox should make a console handheld. They should make a PC handheld. But they first need a custom OS that runs on top of windows and also to massively fix windows.
Why is the steam deck cornering the market? Cos windows sucks. Real bad. And valve have a perfect (almost) solution.
I’d agree the casuals won’t even have heard of a steam deck or rog ally.
Sometimes you have to take yourself outside of your enthusiasts bubble to see the bigger picture.
Just in the way people buy PlayStations to play the fortnights etc
What will sell to the casuals is playing COD fifa natively to a good standard. They don’t want to to mess with settings.
Thats what sells it or not the enthusiasts dream
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Yea, thats called an Xbox.
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It would be if Xbox ran the pc versions of games. But it doesn’t. To launch a handheld the first thing you need is for games to work without any intervention from devs. So that means a PC not a console.
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I mentioned limitations / compromise. Here what they are
Xbox targets both high end console and Handheld console: Nightmare for devs because power difference will be huge. Xbox can’t enter in two markets with one platform while maintaining the power crown. Should Xbox let go power crown for lucrative/unrivaled handheld market? I say yes! power has not given xbox any edge in market anyway. So why bother? Also, xbox strategy is far different from Sony anyway.
Xbox believes in expanding the market and they also approach there high-end console market very differently to PS.
Xbox targeting both the console markets with split but focused efforts is what I am aiming for.
There is a chance for 1 Chip, 2 SKUs, 3 form factor console platform from Xbox.
Rival have shown how a low power console could be sold with highest attachment rate. Rival have shown how a weak hardware could be overclocked to sky and advertised as the best premium console.
And Xbox knows how to target a focused audience. They have all the data.
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Device which could run both Xbox and PC games is what consumers will like the most.
I know there are differences, but this is basically ‘we can’t beat Sony, let’s go for Nintendo’ which IMO is an even more difficult nut to crack.
Not to mention, the existing Xbox audience and studios don’t align well with that philosophy.
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The only concern I have with this at the moment (given Xbox’s smaller market share) is it would give developers another reason to skip Xbox as a platform and just say, “well you can play the PC version”.
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Gotcha, I knew someone would care about Xbox losing to PS and mention it. Old school console market.
However, who is saying to go out there to beat them in sales?
Just capture a focused Sizeable market. We already know xbox generate more profit from small market share anyway.
I think Microsoft is likely going to have the handheld emulate the Series S, like Xbox One does for 360 and Xbox. So I don’t think devs would need to actually develop for it, just the Series S.
As a consumer, not my concern.
And we know console games are more optimised. What they lack is freedom of choice.
It’s not about losing to Sony, it’s about encroaching on Nintendo… the only gaming company in history to be successful with a dedicated gaming handheld. All while every studio you own and every acquisition you’ve made is for mature and/or PC games where the community expects the best fidelity they can get.
How do we even know there is a huge market for a dedicated gaming handheld that isn’t built around family friendly/Nintendo-style games? Based on mobile?
I’m all for a handheld in the ecosystem, it just needs to be a supplementary device not the center of the strategy.
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Xbox doesn’t need to be Nintendo but they do need to differentiate themselves from Sony
Them going down a similar route to Sony with powerful home consoles isn’t the issue, it’s that the consoles themselves are so similar to the point where the average person will pick up a PS because it’s simply the default
Xbox currently doesn’t stand out enough because people basically view it as a PS not not as enticing, that’s largely through brand power and marketing which can be hard to beat
It’s why I’m down for whatever Xbox does going forward, I want a shake up in the market, whether that’s a 2026 console, consoles with AI chips, increased mod support on console etc
Anything to stand out over this boring routine of both of them releasing basically the same thing every 8 years
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Imo, it would depend on how much the Switch 2 will be. Since we do have talk from the ABK case about the Series S being priced competatively with the Switch.
Right now we’re hearing talks about the Switch 2 being $400, so I can imagine Microsoft would want their own hand held to be in the same range to not have it be completely out of consideration.
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Because expansion.
Putting console exclusive on PC was unheard of at sometime
Day and date games on Sub was unheard of at sometime
Progress is not in battling with Sony. Progress is in exploring the unrivaled market
I think that’s a bad idea. Firstly emulation needs a lot of power especially for series S. A handheld you could release doing that doesn’t exist today. Not within sensible power and heat constraints. And likely won’t exist next year either.
Secondly consumers are then stuck with series s versions. A handheld has a fixed screen. You want users to be able to tinker with the profile of games to maximise what they care about. If you want to render at a lower res on a smaller screen to crank the settings then that should be a choice. I think the folks who are buying these things would just not bother if constrained to the series s version of games. And for example the steam deck at 720p can crank settings beyond consoles - and is part of the reason people like it. There is a choice.
That’s unrealistic at this point, unfortunately. No handheld is close to even Series S in performance. So PC is basically the only option.
Personally, I’d love to see a Windows handheld with a streamlined console-like experience based on the Xbox app/launcher. (Much like the Steam Deck for Steam.) Make it as simple as possible for console gamers (boot straight into Xbox mode, automatic game presets, etc.,) while still offering all the PC-tinkering for those who want it.
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