The Future of Xbox is … The PC? (Premium)

The ROG Xbox Ally Handhelds that Microsoft revealed today are more PC than console. They're also yet another gut-check moment for Xbox fans. How much more are we expected to endure?

I guess it depends on what being an Xbox fan means to you. To some, Microsoft has betrayed their loyalty by ignoring the Xbox console to focus on PCs, mobile, and even competing consoles and promoting this shift through its This is an Xbox ads. To others, Microsoft faced down an extinction moment for Xbox by expanding its platform capabilities, embracing subscription services, and shifting the focus to gamers, not particular devices. Oh, and it spent $68 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard, making it one of the biggest videogame publishers on earth, and across platforms.

I won't play the centrist card here. I am firmly in the latter camp, and I'm tired of the whining. By any objective measure, Microsoft should have simply given up on Xbox, either by spinning it off or just sunsetting the consoles so it can focus on the PC and mobile. But it didn't do that. And while no one--not me, not you, not anyone--is happy about how things have gone since Microsoft closed the Activision Blizzard acquisition, I see all kinds of things to love about Xbox as a platform. And even some signs of hope.

Those two points are intertwined, of course. And they are both present in these new handhelds, though they are indeed confusing. Xbox was once defined solely by the consoles, of course. But PC gaming entered the fray with Windows Vista in 2006, and though it was ignored for too many years, Microsoft has since given it a first-class Xbox experience. And now we have Activision Blizzard and the other studios, with their footholds in competing consoles and mobile. But the handhelds are the start ... of something. Something familiar in some ways. But also something different. Something else.

Let's start with the branding. The ROG Xbox Ally Handhelds are obviously notable because of the Xbox brand in the name. This is a first: An Xbox-branded hardware device that is not made by Microsoft. And it won't be the last, as Microsoft has confirmed that there will be more Xbox-branded handhelds coming in 2026 from other hardware makers.

But that's not the only thing notable about the name. The Ally naming is, I think, a good choice, as in these third-party devices, starting with the two ASUS products, are allies of Microsoft and Xbox in the ecosystem. In describing how one can play Xbox Play Anywhere titles across all three device types now, it's described as working "across Xbox console, PC and Xbox Ally," which reads nicely. (I realize Ally is an ASUS brand. But it's a good name for the first third-party Xbox gaming devices.)

Even more important, these devices are also very specifically called handhelds and not handheld PCs. That's purposeful. It's also significant: While the viability of this market is still an open question, Microsoft obviously wants to promote this...