After the announcement of three new Xbox consoles this summer, we knew that Microsoft was working on a portable Xbox project. Phil Spencer, the boss of Xbox, had hinted that something was in the works and it's now official! Yes, a portable Xbox will see the light of day.
The portable Xbox is coming, teams are working on it
- An AI-generated portable Xbox
It was therefore at the microphone of Bloomberg that the head of gaming at Microsoft, Phil Spencer, spoke about the state of health of the Xbox brand.
The executive, who has spoken several times about his attraction to portable gaming devices in recent months, said that “there is an expectation that we will do something” in this device category.
Although the company is working on prototypes and still thinking about what it might do, Phil Spencer confirmed to Bloomberg that he has asked his group to study the market and develop their vision based on what he learns. According to him, such a device will only see the light of day in a few years.
Phil Spencer said that in the coming months, Xbox designers and engineers will work to improve the way the Xbox app works on existing handheld devices and work in partnership with hardware manufacturers to ensure that their products are compatible with Xbox games and experiences. He says the Xbox app is more good than great on some of these gadgets.
“Longer term, I love the fact that we're building devices”said Phil Spencer. “And I think our team could do some really innovative work, but we want to be informed by learning and what's happening now”.
There is therefore a team working on portable Xbox prototypes and which will work on its own vision of the market, but we should not expect an announcement soon since this type of portable console will not see the light of day before several years. Perhaps for the next generation of home consoles?
A portable Xbox for playing locally, and not necessarily just in the cloud
Microsoft's design of a portable Xbox is a topic we've covered several times in recent years. In March 2024, rumors were already mentioning the creation of prototypes and in the summer of 2024, Phil Spencer had already half-heartedly mentioned the subject of an Xbox Portable.
When we talk about portable consoles in 2024, we cannot say that the offer is really very vast. Above all, we have Nintendo which is a hit with its Nintendo Switch, and certain manufacturers who have launched consoles capable of running PC games.
During a summer 2024 post-conference interview with Phil Spencer, IGN was able to ask the question directly about the status of the creation of a portable Xbox console and the company's motto, namely “to go where are the players.”
Without being able to announce anything at the time, Phil Spencer declared: “I think we should have a portable console”and added that Microsoft's hardware teams were working on “several forms of machines.”
The future of our hardware is pretty impressive, and the work the team is doing on different form factors, different ways to play, excites me to no end. Today we talked about games… but we will have the opportunity to talk more about the platform, and we can't wait to share it with you.
Asked whether the future portable Xbox console would be closer to a Steam Deck that could be played offline, or a cloud-based console, Phil Spencer replied: “I think it’s very important to be able to play locally. ».
When we see Microsoft's hardware mastery on the Xbox Series or its Surface PCs, we can only be optimistic about the qualities of this portable Xbox.
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