the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, has revealed in a Bloomberg interview that Xbox handheld prototypes are currently being worked on. The caveat is that this hardware is still a few years out. So it would appear the rumors that Microsoft is working on an Xbox handheld are indeed true, but we sadly won’t see the results of this work for some time.
This isn’t technically Steam Deck news, but I think a major player like Microsoft making a Steam Deck competitor is pretty significant as far as the handheld PC market goes.
Switch has been around for awhile, and is definitely more of a handheld console than a PC. A lot of the talks around the Xbox handheld have actually been in comparison to the Steam Deck, but it’s not clear yet if the Xbox handheld will be a full PC capable of playing any windows games, or a more locked down Xbox only device.
This is also pretty significant because it might mean that Windows will get increased support for handheld computers. That would both make it a better alternative OS for the Deck, and would significantly improve the user experience of competitor devices. But once again, it depends on if the device will be more of a handheld PC or handheld xbox.
So yeah, Switch is a juggernaut as far as handheld gaming goes, but I don’t think the Switch 2 will significantly impact the Steam Deck. But the Xbox handheld could be much more disruptive/impactful to the smaller niche that the Deck currently dominates.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !steamdeck@sopuli.xyz
A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
As Lemmy doesn’t have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.
I have zero interest in a handheld tied to windows and their ad systems
Can’t wait to get a BSOD in my hands!
They should add some kind of ring to it, maybe one that can turn red for some reason or another.
As long as we can never fully understand when or how it will turn red, and sometimes when you wrap it in towels it stops being red, I’m all for it.
It will be tied to Microsoft and Gamepass heavily. Neither of those things interest me.
Well I am planning to build a rocket and go to the moon but alas the hardware is still a couple years out :( no fear, it will be soon though!
Did we all just forget about the switch?
Switch has been around for awhile, and is definitely more of a handheld console than a PC. A lot of the talks around the Xbox handheld have actually been in comparison to the Steam Deck, but it’s not clear yet if the Xbox handheld will be a full PC capable of playing any windows games, or a more locked down Xbox only device.
This is also pretty significant because it might mean that Windows will get increased support for handheld computers. That would both make it a better alternative OS for the Deck, and would significantly improve the user experience of competitor devices. But once again, it depends on if the device will be more of a handheld PC or handheld xbox.
So yeah, Switch is a juggernaut as far as handheld gaming goes, but I don’t think the Switch 2 will significantly impact the Steam Deck. But the Xbox handheld could be much more disruptive/impactful to the smaller niche that the Deck currently dominates.
That makes sense… I could actually see them using gamepass streaming or something… Really push for that subscription model …
maybe they’ll fix all the massive issues windows has on portables but im not holding my breath.