Jez Corden of the Xbox Two podcast has claimed that Xbox is working on a new native Xbox handheld.
On the Xbox Two podcast, Corden said, “I know that they’ve [Xbox] have got handheld prototypes right now”. Corden soon clarified that these are “new prototypes” and not the old prototypes often referred to. As pointed out in the podcast, prototypes don’t necessarily mean that new products are coming to market, but Xbox pursuing a handheld isn’t at all surprising.
Corden later said, “no not a cloud handheld, a fully native Xbox handheld.”
The Nintendo Switch has sold well over 100 million copies since its initial launch and now with the likes of the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and even the PlayStation Portal coming to market in the last couple of years, Xbox making its move into the handheld market makes sense. In fact, some could even argue that companies tapping into the handheld market are one of the only avenues for hardware growth due to the stagnation in console sales.
It’s unclear on when Xbox would announce a new Xbox handheld, but various rumors have suggested that the console’s next generation of consoles could be a dockable handheld, similar to the Nintendo Switch. Earlier this year, Phil Spencer teased that Xbox’s next-generation console will be ‘unique and powerful’.
On the Official Xbox Podcast, newly-crowned Xbox President, Sarah Bond also broke down what’s next for Xbox “We’ve got more to come. There’s some exciting stuff coming out in hardware that we’re going to share this holiday. We’re also invested in the next-generation roadmap. What we’re really focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation, which makes it better for players and better for creators and the visions that they’re building.”
What do you think on an Xbox handheld? Let us know in the comments.
For more from Insider Gaming, check out our exclusive news on the next Battlefield game, which will have a free-to-play Battle Royale connected to it. Also, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for exclusive gameplay, news, and interviews.
If it’s a native handheld then count me in! I’m not down for any streaming devices but one that could access my account and download games from my library in it like the steamdeck and also dock with a TV or monitor, would be awesome! Especially if they gave it a big bang for a small buck. They could probably have it power wise between the S and X and 4k 60 and for a handheld that would be really good and price it between $200 and $300. Ideally $250 or 200 to do some SEVERE undercutting and make it easier for more people to engage. They’re already taking a loss on console prices so may as well here too. They can afford it. lol. If they did, it would sell like hotcakes. But I’m very interested to see what it is regardless. If it is indeed a thing. Maybe a unique thing about it would be that it could dock a pair of VR goggles if you were in to that. Would be cool if it could do a lot of stuff like that huh!
They don’t need this just get Game Pass on more devices and buy more publishers. Steam Deck and handheld gaming PC’s exist already. The only other thing they could do is get Game Pass on PlayStation and Nintendo and mobile/other streaming devices like Netflix. If they buy a few more publishers like EA and Take2 then they’ll be set and it would primarily be their first party content on Game Pass so Sony and Nintendo wouldn’t see it as a threat to them interfering with the larger third party games market and the percentage they take.
Xbox handheld is easy win for Microsoft. Xbox 360 games was converted to Xbox One. All Xbox One games require 1.3 TFLOPS. All Xbox Series S games are designed for 1080p or 900p. To run every game from Xbox Series S, Xbox One and Xbox 360 you need build hardware with 4 TFLOPS. Average speed of Asus ROG Ally from 2023 was 3 TFLOPS (12 CU * 2.1 GHz). MS should be able to build handheld with sustained 4 TFLOPS in 2024 or 2025
Sony can’t compete. Playstation handheld could support only PS4 games (1.8 TFLOPS, 1080p). PS3 games are not supported on x86. PS5 games require 10 TFLOPS GPU. It is impossible to build handheld with 10 TFLOPS GPU in next 6-8 years
Doesn’t make sense your comment. If games can be downgraded for Series S, why it would not be possible for imaginary standalone PS5 handheld to get same level games?
Getting any games that were also released on the Series S working on a hypothetical series s performance level psp shouldn’t be an issue. But if it was compiled natively for the ps5 targeting it’s full performance then it’s going to require a bit more work to get that working well on much less powerful hardware. It’s an easier thing on the Xbox because that performance level is the base that every game is supposed to be able to run on. That’s not the case at all with the PS5.
“If games can be downgraded for Series S, why it would not be possible for imaginary standalone PS”
Because on Xbox those games already exist. Every Xbox game have ‘ready to use’ version designed for 1080p 4 TFLOP machine. Game developers don’t need spent time to create 1000-2000 games designed for handheld.
On Playstation all games was designed for 10 TFLOPS PS5. Those games can’t be used on handheld. It will cost a lot of time and money to create games for Playstation 5 handheld.
Locked down Xbox hand-held? Pass.
Inefficient Windowed based hand-held? Also pass.
An Xbox game mode handheld with a windows desktop mode at $500 with a nice 8 inch screen would have my preorder. I can already play Xcloud on my steam deck, but Xbox would take a giant bite out of Valve by having dual modes like the steam deck does. An easy interface for people who just want to play, and the windows side for PC gamers. If valve can do this on Linux then Microsoft certainly has the staff to pull it off.
Hybrid consoles are the future