Jez Corden: Microsoft handheld will be a high-end, Steam deck like console

[HexTheVoid]

The high-end unit is being positioned more as something for their core console userbase, which is drastically shrinking , and at a rate they couldn't have anticipated. It will be available in fewer regions and markets than ever before, and even distribution in regions where they do have a market (NA/UK) may take on a more direct purchase approach instead of going with the method of stocking it with traditional retailers, aka -you buy it directly from Microsoft. It helps keep costs down and gives them a much more solid margin, especially when they already know the market ceiling is so much lower. Very similar approach to how they retail their Surface line. Its really only intended for the folks who haven't minded the turd in the punchbowl for the last 15 years anyway"

For the handheld, its being positioned more in the sort of vector that Steam Deck is in, but for the Windows Gaming/PC Desktop app, over being an extension of the Xbox-hardware ecosystem itself. What that means is, imagine it as a handheld windows PC, with a wrapper for the PC Microsoft Gaming app that most PC users utilize to buy Xbox games or use Game Pass on PC. What they are hoping for is that it, along with them extending this OS to other handheld PC makers like ASUS and some others, is that it'll strengthen the userbase and onboarding of users into the Xbox PC/WIndows Gaming Store experience, as they are beginning to view Steam and the growth of SteamOS as a potential threat to their dominance over gaming in the OS space.
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[Faultandfracture]

I'm a playstation/PC gamer but I like the idea of it with gamepass so may pick one up if the price is right