Specs for a hypothetical Xbox portable

Gaming
562

From my experience with the Nintendo Switch, I can count 7 immediate families who have one, mine included, every kid wanted a NSW, but as soon as an Xbox or PS is available to play in the household they drop it in a hot second. It is marketing, but also price point for mass adoption. For kids gaming, it usually goes ipad - iphone - NSW - Console/PC. An Xbox handheld would be great, but it would need to be its own platform and a low price point. It should have touch screen and the Xbox mobile app store as well, plus it’s own games.

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563

Another reason why an ARM device that has HW emulation of the Zen 2 cores makes so much sense. You run Xbox console games with HW BC, and Xbox mobile games natively with the ARM cores.

Since it’ll have a touch screen, any XGS mobile games JUST WORKS, and mobile games that can leverage a controller JUST WORKS. Imagine a device that can play both COD Warzone and COD Warzone mobile.

Obviously such a feature isn’t going to be the deciding driver in the popularity of the handheld, but it will be one part of a greater whole that would cement such an handheld into something clearly better than the Steam Deck, various Windows gaming handhelds, and on par with the Switch.

Xbox Arm Handheld differentiators:

  1. Full support of Xbox Game Pass (unsupported games natively avaiable via Xcloud)
  2. Seamless XCloud support
  3. Full support of Xbox Mobile Games
  4. Full support of Xbox Store Games. (unsupported games natively available via Xcloud)
  5. Full support of Xbox gamer’s digital library (unsupported games natively available via Xcloud)
  6. Easy porting from Switch 2
  7. X86 support for new games due to HW support. (though devs targeting using ARM cores natively will unlock some extra performance)
  8. Best price / perf handheld bar none.
  9. Best perf / watt handheld bar none. (Same battery life as Switch 2 but able to run games at a much higher settings)

One of the benefit behind the scene would be allowing Xbox to begin the work on the next Xbox OS and GDK early with a device that doesn’t have pressure to release or ship lots of units.

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564

What hardware will run in xCloud? And how xbox will tackle traditional high end console?

565

In my opinion when MS releases their custom arm chip that can compete with Apples M2 chip is when they will release a handheld.

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566

I concur.

Although I think they’re focusing on server chips first.

567

What HW runs in Cloud can be Arm or x86. Xbox will tackle traditional consoles via another SKU that has the same CPU, albeit with faster clocks and/or more cache, and much faster memory and GPU.

568

People are suggesting that MS launches a portable / hybrid as a new gen or the lower sku of a new gen and I don’t think that’s a good idea at all. Here is my reasoning copied from another thread.

You shouldn’t launch a portable as part of a new gen. You’ll need to hit a baseline level of performance for the new gen and having a hybrid / portable in your lineup complicates development. Series S in hindsight should have been a $399 device with 12GB of ram and 6-8 tfs of GPU power.

I believe since MS is removing the need to absolutely have an Xbox console due to games, since they’re on PC too and streaming devices. They should further differentiate their HW offerings to provide reasons for people to game on Xbox HW over PC.

Handheld makes a lot of sense, as do a extremely high end console. But the handheld should always be a mid gen type of thing since a handheld will always be weaker than a baseline new gen level of specs. Imagine if the series s had only 4 cpus cores and a 1tf GPU when it launched.

So what imo a roadmap for my vision of Xbox HW.

2024-2025: Xbox Legacy portable $399. BC up to xb1.

2025-2026: Xbox series Z $699-$799

2028: Xbox series S2 $399-$499 Xbox Series X2 $699

2030+: Xbox Legacy 2 portable $399. BC up to series s.

Your portables are always going be primarily BC, crossgen, indie and Cloud machines, otherwise the gap between your portable and your traditional machines will be too huge and we see how that complicates things.

Before people say why not forgo traditional machines altogether? My answer would be that MS’s software ecosystem is conducive for multiple hardware and there is no reason to limit HW options in favor of another, especially one that is likely to poise development challenges due to a power gap.

Your portable sells 10-15 million units. Your traditional PS alternative sells 30-40 million. Your high end PC alternative sells 10-15 million.

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569

Unrelated, but you really think Xbox Series Z (mid gen update) is really happening?

570

A few months back I was pretty certain, but it seems like after closing ABK, plans and priorities are in flux.

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571

I agree with pretty much everything you listed. Just thinking about 1 or two options with it:

The portable is everything you describe, technically a BC machine, but I believe it needs to be it’s own platform. Call it portable or mobile, the important fact is that Xbox’s next big push is a Mobile app store on Apple and Google devices, this portable should be the development platform for it. Those are $1200 everything devices, and this Xbox portable gaming only device at $399 could match them in performance.

So it plays all BC games, plus all mobile app games(needs touch), and it can have new full game releases made specifically for it, because they could also be released on the mobile app stores. This way dev cost would be worth it. Kind of like RE, Sonic, DS release on iOS.

Also I like the idea of releasing a Xbox Series Z and actually prolonging this generation. Games are taking twice as long to make and the 7-8 console cycle is feeling short for timelines.

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572

My two cents…

From everything we’ve seen and heard, it seems highly unlikely. Looking at the current situation, it just wouldn’t make much sense. I think the rumours about an early “next gen” start in 2026 are more plausible.

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573

I already posted early that the portable should use arm and should run Switch 2 ports and also XGS mobile games natively.

:slight_smile:

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574

https://twitter.com/JezCorden/status/1753112588966375480?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1753112588966375480|twgr^|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=

:eyes:

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575

xbox management would be incompetent if they are not doing r&d on a handhelp. We know they are not. The real question is, will it or when will it gets out of r&d?

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576

Jez tweets vs. Jez articles

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577

Are you sure they’re not incompetent though?

578

Sarah Bond is the president of Xbox at Microsoft overseeing the entire brand’s operations as a platform and ecosystem, including hardware and devices, player and creator experiences, platform engineering, strategy, business planning, data and analytics, and business development and partnerships.

It’s up to her now, what the future of Xbox hardware looks like. :man_shrugging:t5:

579

Oh please… :roll_eyes:

580

As I mentioned earlier I posted a thread similar to this but in regard to specifically a streaming device:

I forgot about making that thread but I now realize that the PlayStation Portal is exactly that without 5G support. And far pricier.

That said, it makes me wonder if Xbox would consider anything like my proposal if The PlayStation Portal actually sells decently well. But at the end of the day it’s incomparable if it doesn’t have 5G. The whole point of my suggestion was that you could play it anywhere with a 5G network and cloud streaming.

The thing about the PP is that it doesn’t grow the user base for PlayStation whereas something with 5G allowing you to subscribe to a service would actually grow PlayStation or Xbox. Being able to play anywhere is critical in growing the business. Being tied to a console doesn’t sell more consoles.

581

Jez Tweets → Complete bullshit used to fabricate engagement

Jez Articles → Clickbait/Ragebait headline followed by an article that says virtually nothing

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