Short term, yes. (Although my understanding is that the Series S is already being sold at a substantial loss, so adding a screen would have made it even moreso. Also, people already criticize the Series S for its performance, and I think further sacrifices would have to be made - for size/battery/heat - to get it into a handheld form factor.)
Long-term however, I think MS is and should be focused on streaming to mobile as their handheld solution. There’s just a lot more potential there, and MS/Xbox cannot try to be all things to all people.
All of this “not quite ready yet” stuff with Xcloud is going to pay off as streaming technology matures. It won’t be easy for competitors who hadn’t been refining an existing product for years to catch up.
Do Steam versions of Xbox titles support XBL features like cross-save and achievements? This could basically be a native handheld for Xbox if you’re not into streaming. The lower resolution + something like Fidelity FX can fill the gap between this and Series S versions of games.
This is kinda a big meh for me, it looks big and clunky and the stick layout looks extremely uncomfortable. I would love a Xbox controller with a screen between the left and right grip.
A 4C/8T Zen 2 and RDNA 2 GPU in a 15W power envelope is an impressive engineering accomplishment. Price is very reasonable as well. Hopefully this does better than the steam machines.
This must’ve been what Gabe meant when he was asked about Steam being on consoles an he replied saying they’d have an answer to that question before year’s end. I wonder if the rumors about Gabe wanting Game Pass on Steam were related to this too, actually.
