Those of you holding out for a compelling Windows handheld gaming PC shouldn’t need to wait for an Xbox portable, if Microsoft is to be believed.
Talking at a recent AMD and Lenovo round table event, Microsoft VP of Next Generation Jason Ronald had some interesting things to say about the company’s handheld gaming plans.
While an Xbox handheld might be some way off, Ronald revealed that Microsoft was working to produce an improved Windows handheld gaming experience before that point. After hinting that Microsoft was planning to bring the Xbox experience over to Windows PCs, Ronald told The Verge that the company was looking at combining the Xbox and Windows experiences.
“I would say it’s bringing the best of Xbox and Windows together, because we have spent the last 20 years building a world-class operating system, but it’s really locked to the console,” he said.
Perhaps most intriguingly, he also noted that we should see the first fruits of this streamlining effort later this year.
“I think it’s going to be a journey and I think you’ll see a lot of investments over time that you’re starting to see already, but we’ll have a lot more to share later this year,” said Ronald.
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It’s an established fact that an Xbox handheld is in the works at Microsoft’s gaming arm, but also that the devices are likely to be years away from release. This leaves it up to a bunch of third party manufacturers to wrestle Microsoft’s unwieldy Windows OS into some kind of intuitive UI – something that no-one has quite managed to achieve as yet.
There’s a reason the Steam Deck with its Linux-based OS remains the most compelling handheld gaming PC on the market, despite being significantly less powerful than the likes of the Lenovo Legion Go and the Asus ROG Ally X.
