Phil Spencer, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Gaming and the face of Xbox, has revealed in a new interview what he would want to see in an Xbox portable following leaks and rumors that suggest Microsoft may actually be planning one, including (but not limited to) those court documents from last year that mention a “handheld device” as part of the OS specs for a next-generation console. Spencer revealed that he’s tried all of today’s most popular devices, such as the Lenovo Legion Go, but didn’t like how they failed to capture the feel of an Xbox.
Spencer mentioned:
- “I brought [the Legion Go] with me to GDC. I’m on the airplane and I have this list of everything that makes it not feel like an Xbox.”
- “Are all of my games there? Do all my games show up with the save [files] that I want? I’ll tell you one [game] that doesn’t right now — it’s driving me crazy — is Fallout 76. It doesn’t have cross-save.”
- “I want to be able to boot into the Xbox app in a full screen, but in a compact mode. And all of my social [experience] is there. Like I want it to feel like the dash of my Xbox when I turn on the television. [Except I want it] on those devices.”
- “[Xbox is considering] different hardware form factors and things that [they] could go do. What should we build that will find new players? That will allow people to play at times when they couldn’t go play [in the past]?”
- “I like the fact that Valve, Lenovo, and Asus went out and innovated in a new form factor. And I will say that when I’m playing on those devices, it almost feels more like a console than a PC — nine times out of 10.”
- “The things that usually frustrate me are more Windows-based than device-based. Which is an area I feel some ownership of. Like, I want to be able to log in with a controller. I’ve got my list of things we should go do.”
- “…if I want to go play my console games on the go with a handheld, I don’t want to only be able to buy one brand of handheld. Right? […] I want everything that we’re doing in the hardware space to be great. But if somebody chooses to go play today [somewhere else], I don’t want them to feel like a lesser Xbox [player].”
A previously leaked Xbox slide noting “handheld devices”:
Polygon clarified:
…we’ve seen the Xbox development team get creative with its software, moving games to new platforms, building up the Game Pass subscription service, and making games playable on smartphones through streaming. …Spencer wouldn’t outright announce an official Xbox handheld, but he did say he sees a similar level of creativity coming to hardware that Xbox has brought to software.