Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer each acknowledged and poured chilly water on persistent rumors about an imminent Xbox handheld announcement throughout a latest interview with Bloomberg.
“[E]xpectation is that we’d do one thing,” Spencer stated, whereas additionally noting work on such a undertaking has but to progress past market analysis and prototyping. “Long term, I really like us constructing gadgets. And I feel our staff may do some actual modern work, however we need to learn by studying and what’s taking place now.”
Xbox’s present focus is reportedly on enhancing the Xbox app on current platforms and dealing nearer with {hardware} builders to make sure a greater expertise for customers.
Spencer admitted to being “an enormous fan of handhelds” in a Feb. 2024 dialog with The Verge, and a month later mentioned his philosophy on handheld gaming with Polygon on the Sport Builders Convention, little question contributing to the fervent cottage trade of rumormongers that tends to pop up round these kinds of matters.
“I would like my Lenovo Legion Go to really feel like an Xbox,” Spencer informed Polygon editor-in-chief Chris Plante. “I introduced [the Legion Go] with me to GDC. I’m on the airplane and I’ve this checklist of all the things that makes it not really feel like an Xbox. Neglect concerning the model. Extra like: Are all of my video games there? Do all my video games present up with the save [files] that I would like?”
Again to the Bloomberg interview, Spencer stated Xbox was open to additional acquisitions, although perhaps not one fairly so large and arduous as Activision Blizzard, which price slightly below $69 billion and kicked off a prolonged court docket case with the Federal Commerce Fee earlier than the corporate was formally introduced into the fold in 2023. He additionally claimed Xbox “has by no means been extra wholesome” since shedding 2,500 staff and shutting three studios.
“I really feel fairly good about the place this trade goes,” Spencer stated earlier than criticizing methods like people who led to Sony’s costly new PlayStation 5 Professional console. “To achieve new gamers, we should be artistic and adaptive of latest enterprise fashions, new gadgets, new methods of entry. We’re not going to develop the market with $1,000 consoles.”
