Microsoft and Asus have just announced two ROG Xbox Ally devices that include a new full-screen Xbox experience for handhelds. After promising to combine “the best of Xbox and Windows together” for handhelds this year, Microsoft is now revealing exactly how it is overhauling the Xbox app, Game Bar, and Windows itself to better to compete with SteamOS, The Verge reported.
Microsoft has needed to respond to SteamOS ever since the Steam Deck launched three years ago, and it has steadily been tweaking its Xbox app and the Xbox Game Bar on Windows to make both more handheld-friendly. But there was always a bigger overhaul of Windows required, and we’re starting to see parts of that today.
The reality is that we’ve made tremendous progress on this over the past couple of years, and this is really the device that galvanized those teams and everybody marching and working towards a moment that we’re just really excited to put into the hands of players,” says Roanne Sones, corporate vice president of gaming Devices and ecosystem at Xbox, in a briefing with The Verge.
ArsTechnia reported: Back in March, we outlined six features we wanted to see on what was then just a rumored Xbox-branded, Windows-powered handheld gaming device. Today, Microsoft’s announcement of the Asus ROG Xbox Ally hardware line looks like it fulfills almost all of our wishes for Microsoft’s biggest foray into the portable gaming yet.
The Windows-11-powered Xbox Ally devices promise access to “all of the games available on Windows,” including “games from Xbox, Game Pass, Battle.net, and other leading PC storefronts.” But instead of having to install and boot up those games through the stock Windows interface, a you often do on handhelds like the original ROG Ally line, all these games will be available through what Microsoft is calling an “aggregated gaming library.”
Asus and Microsoft are stressing how that integrated experience can be used with games across multiple different Windows-based launchers, promising “access to games you can’t get elsewhere.” That could be a subtle dig at SteamOS powered devices like the Steam Deck, which can have significant trouble with certain titles that don’t play well with Steam and/or Linux for one reason or another.
GamesBeat reported: Microsoft announced that it is diving into the handheld gaming market with its own Xbox-branded handheld in partnership with PC maker Asus.
It’s called the ROG Xbox Ally (16GB) and ROG Xbox Ally X (24GB). It has Hollow Knight game available at launch. Shawn Yen, vice president of consumer at Asus, said that Ally is short for “all your games.
The company plans to launch the handheld in 2025. As such, it will compete with rivals such as Nintendo Switch 2 and the Valve Steam Deck. There are already a number of Windows-based devices on the handheld PC market, but those have had mixed results.