A handheld Xbox console that is in development would likely be a standalone gaming centre rather than cloud-based.
Xbox’s Phil Spencer has confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg that the Microsoft-owned Xbox wants to muscle in on the handheld console market.
“The executive, who has repeatedly professed his admiration for handheld game devices, said the ‘expectation is that we would do something’ in that category,” the news site reported.
“Although the company is working on prototypes and considering what it might do, Spencer also asked his group to look at the market and develop its vision based on what it learns. Such a device is a few years out, he said.”
In June Spencer told IGN that “the future for us in hardware is pretty awesome … The work that the team is doing around different form factors, different ways to play, I’m incredibly excited about”.
Nintendo Switch.
When IGN asked at the time if “a hypothetical Xbox handheld would be a dedicated gaming platform where you can play games locally (like a Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch), or a cloud-based handheld, Spencer responded: ‘I think being able to play games locally is really important’”.
The Xbox online shop for mobile games was supposed to launch in July, but Bloomberg reports that staffers are still talking to mobile developers, “including those responsible for Microsoft-owned Candy Crush and Call of Duty Mobile, to figure out a plan”.
“As regulatory cases involving Apple Inc.’s iOS and Alphabet Inc.’s Android mobile stores work their way through courts in various countries, Microsoft still doesn’t have an effective way to get its own store on mobile phones.”
Spencer was wary of simply opening a mobile store for the sake of it: “So a web store would mean somebody doesn’t have to go into the app store to try to install something, but you still have to have a way to find the store. If we’re just hoping, like, if we build it, they will come, I’m going to bet that doesn’t work.”
