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Soundwave on 04 August 2023
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Slownenberg said:
Soundwave said:

I wouldn't be that stunned if Microsoft introduces an XBox branded portable PC.

Steam Deck is clearly not a one off product, now you can see other PC manufacturers getting in on the act like ASUS with the ROG Ally, and this unlike the Steam Deck is even available at normal retail like Best Buy.

It wouldn't really take a whole lot for Microsoft to make something like that, they could get the same or better APU from AMD and they already make Surface tablets. It wouldn't even be some huge hardware investment, they'd just be using a standard AMD APU.

The big knock on Sony/MS having to release a portable was it would split their dev resources, but with the way MS' ecosystem is set up, a ROG or Steam Deck device from XBox would automatically basically run all of MS' games anyway because they are all designed to work on a PC so that whole problem of "yeah but if you make a device like this it means you can't support your home console as much because dev resources are split!" kinda goes out the window.


So I wouldn't necessarily say Nintendo is guaranteed to be the only one of the big 3 to ever have a hybrid device forever and ever. That could change in next couple of years.

I mean they could...but Xbox isn't that popular in the first place at least not compared to Nintendo and Playstation, and by doing a handheld you have to give up on the latest cutting edge graphical games. Whereas Nintendo has a huge lineup of their own games and most of those are not realistic-style games. Xbox's brand is a lot of high end realistic looking action type games. Those wouldn't be coming to a handheld Xbox, so likely a handheld Xbox would just be significantly less popular than the console Xboxes are. Probably not a good move.

Steam Deck was a really big deal....and is a pretty niche product. I don't see Microsoft having an interest in releasing a niche product that won't even play the types of games their userbase is used to.

I mean XBox doesn't sell past 60 million mainly because they have to fight the Playstation for the exact same consumer tooth and nail. If there was no Playstation, the XBox is selling what? 100 million? 150 million? 

What an XBox branded take on the Steam Deck would do is just what you alluded to there ... it would not be a niche product. It would get stocked at every retailer and a global release and you would see TV ads and the works for it, so it wouldn't be like a fringe type of product. Like the Playstation sells more than the XBox but no way does anyone think of the XBox as some fringe/niche brand, it's a mainstream brand for sure. 

Frankly with the amount they've spent on Bethesda and Acti-Blizzard there really is no more going back for them anyway, they are all in on gaming now, there's no like "well, we're just sorta doing this as a hobby". Not when you put down $70 billion dollars for one acquisition. If they believe that much in the Game Pass model then probably at some point a portable XBox makes some sense, to drive Game Pass adoption because there is zero chance Nintendo will ever allow that on the Switch. 

With the PSP and Vita it was a different story because it had to be a totally distinct hardware and software ecosystem that required tons of R&D and dev resources to support and those systems, but in this case like ... there is a version of every game they make already playable on a PC architecture, they don't even have to do anything. 

It's not even like the hardware R&D would be pricey either ... AMD is already making the APUs for these kinds of devices, I'm sure Microsoft could get something similar or better from AMD. It's not some exotic "made only for ASUS or Valve!" chip. 

Last edited by Soundwave - on 04 August 2023