Despite Micosoft’s wavering goodwill with the Xbox fan community, the company managed to host a showcase this past weekend full of games and news that should assuage fears of abandonment or loss of focus by the gaming division.
During its Xbox Games Showcase this past Sunday, Microsoft managed to deliver E3-levels of excitement for the gaming community as it rattled off roughly thirty plus gaming demos and trailers that covers everything from platformers to real-time-strategy (RTS), and flight sims. However, it’s the hint at a handheld Xbox branded console during a follow up interview with CEO of Microsoft Gaming that may be the most talked about news coming out of the Xbox Games Showcase this past weekend.
Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming sat down with the folks over at IGN to discuss its recent gaming event, and while they did cover topics such as cross platform publishing, studio closures, hardware compatibility, and changes to the business, it was this mention of a possible handheld coming from the company that stood out to many.
Ryan McCaffrey: I think we all know what you mean by that! Well ask Todd to, you know… We’re waiting here, pal!
There’s one other thing I wanted to ask you about that I thought we actually might hear something about from you – I mean, you had a great show, I’m not complaining – but I thought, well, there’s something that’s been rumored, that’s been talked about. And that is an Xbox handheld. You’ve been building the business around this mantra of, go where the players are, whether it’s on PC…
Phil Spencer: So, we should have handheld? I think we should have a handheld, too!
Spencer goes on to clarify that he’s not confirming the company will produce an actual handheld gaming PC anytime soon, but he’s extremely excited about the hardware future of the Xbox gaming division. Spencer’s comments come at a time when fans of the brand have been questioning the vision of Xbox going forwards as the company appears to be de-emphasizing traditional console lock in for a more “game anywhere” approach that includes putting exclusives on former competitors’ platforms.
Spence leaves a lot of sunlight to be shed on a possible handheld gaming device coming from the Xbox brand in the future as he defers to the president of Xbox Sarah Bond on the likelihood of that reality.
Ryan McCaffrey: You want to say anything about that?
Phil Spencer: No, I don’t want to say anything! You’ll have to have Sarah Bond on, our president of Xbox, who is awesome. But the future for us in hardware is pretty awesome. And the work that the team is doing around different form factors, different ways to play, I’m incredibly excited about it.
Today was about the games. We showed some of our gen nine console Series S, Series X, the work that we’re doing. But we will have a time to come out and talk more about platform, and we can’t wait to bring ’em to you.
While Microsoft is constantly assessing and patenting different form factors and hardware designs, it should be noted that the company recently combined its first party Surface computing business with its Xbox gaming efforts in a consolidating effort last year. The Surface team has made waves in the computing business with its unique hinge obsessions and minimalistic design ethos, and while the Xbox Series X|S consoles were created before the merger, it’ll be interesting to see what a combined effort from the two businesses can produce in the future when it comes to a handheld.
Ryan McCaffrey: Hypothetically, if Microsoft did an Xbox gaming handheld PC device, would it be a Steam Deck-like dedicated piece of hardware that I can play offline, or would it be something I would need a Wi-Fi connection to stream things from?
Phil Spencer: I’ll put it this way: I like my ROG Ally, my Lenovo Legion Go – fantastic – my Steam Deck. I think being able to play games locally is really important.
