The primary Xbox handheld won't come from Microsoft

It took just a few years of coping with poorly optimized handheld PCs, however Windows Central reports Microsoft could lastly be engaged on an Xbox handheld. The corporate may announce an Xbox-branded moveable gadget as early as this yr, although it sounds prefer it will not come from Microsoft immediately.

As a substitute, the corporate is partnering with a PC maker already working within the gaming house to construct a handheld, Home windows Central writes. The gadget, codenamed “Keenan,” will characteristic Xbox design components, an “official Xbox information button” and can seemingly run Home windows 11. Given the clunky expertise of navigating Home windows on the handhelds you can buy today, the actual hope is that Xbox’s take will embrace a launcher or new approach of utilizing the desktop OS that is match for a controller as a substitute of a mouse. The large benefit SteamOS has over Home windows is that you just by no means need to work together with a desktop surroundings in case you do not wish to.

These rumored plans may line up with what Microsoft’s VP of “Subsequent Technology” Jason Ronald shared at an AMD and Lenovo occasion from CES 2025 known as “The Way forward for Gaming Handhelds.” According to The Verge, Ronald stated that Microsoft desires to carry “the very best of Xbox and Home windows collectively.” The corporate hopes to simplify Home windows and make it utilizing it extra console-like for handhelds. “I believe we’ll have much more to share later this yr,” Ronald stated.

Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, has expressed interest in handheld devices earlier than and stated the corporate was experimenting with prototypes. It looks like a minimum of for now, although, Microsoft is borrowing Valve’s method and making a handheld-friendly model of its working system available for other PC makers to use.

That does not imply there will not be a first-party handheld sooner or later. Home windows Central‘s report mentions that there is a successor to the Xbox Sequence X, new internet-connected controllers and an official Xbox gaming handheld, all tentatively slated for 2027.

This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/the-first-xbox-handheld-might-not-come-from-microsoft-220043843.html?src=rss

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