Between the 1990s and 2000s, handheld consoles were once the dominant choice in the gaming market. Whether Sony, SEGA or Nintendo launched a series of sensational handheld consoles and game lineups, however, with the advent of smartphones, With the rise of the game and the development of console performance technology, handheld consoles have gradually begun to decline. Even though the Nintendo Switch mixes the concepts of console and handheld console, it is still the most successful game console of this generation, but Sony seems to have given up on native handheld consoles such as the PSP and turned to the PlayStation Portal is a remote control handheld device. However, when the Steam Deck created by Valve achieved unexpected success, many other PC peripheral manufacturers such as ASUS also launched similar handheld PC consoles, proving the new potential of handheld game consoles.
The success of handheld PCs such as the Steam Deck and ASUS Rog Ally has given a shot in the arm to the handheld gaming market that has been languishing for many years, allowing many PC players to enjoy the ability to play anywhere they go. Even Sony recently unveiled a new handheld product, the PlayStation Portal, which allows players with PlayStations to remotely control the game lineup on the console. Many news currently suggest that Nintendo will use the hybrid design concept of Nintendo Switch’s handheld home console on the undisclosed next-generation new console. This has led many players who love Xbox consoles to wonder whether Microsoft has similar plans. However, according to a newly leaked court document, Microsoft still seems to have no plans to enter this market.
On September 19, 2023, a series of relevant court documents from the FTC’s lawsuit against Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition plan suddenly began to circulate on the Internet, revealing more of Microsoft’s internal future and past development plans confidential information. According to the chart information disclosed in one of the confidential documents, Microsoft still has no plans to launch “its own Xbox handheld game console”.
When ASUS’s Rog Ally console was officially launched, many players from the Xbox community believed that this handheld console might become the “handheld version of Xbox” they had been dreaming of. This handheld PC priced at NT$23,999 has quite powerful performance and is equipped with the Windows 11 operating system, which means that players can freely install any game platform such as Steam, Epic Games Store, Battle.net or PC Game Pass without the need for Steam Deck must be officially certified by Steam to support it, so in a way, this may really be the closest option to a handheld Xbox console at the moment.
