You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here
Valve’s Steam Deck has lit a huge match, a candle even, under the buttocks of Microsoft’s gaming division. After years of atrocious changes to the already-bloated Windows OS, Microsoft is actually attempting to make an effort for gamers on their platform.
This has led to the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally handheld, and its more powerful X counterpart, which will feature its own frontend designed for Windows handhelds. While many companies have designed their own UIs for handheld Windows 11, they’re all pretty damn terrible compared to Valve’s extremely lightweight SteamOS, but Microsoft is finally working to remedy this issue.
In a recent episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, Xbox Boss Phil Spencer talked about the upcoming handheld. While there’s no specific release date yet, the new portable gaming PC has been in the works for a while, and Spencer claims the project has unified Microsoft’s Windows and Gaming teams more than ever before.
“This is the tightest collaboration I’ve seen between the gaming organization and the Windows team in my three decades at the company,” the Xbox boss explained in the podcast episode.
Spencer explained that the two teams are working “as one” on the project, identifying core issues with the Windows experience to deliver a more performance and user-friendly device. With the team “focusing on opportunities to make the experience better” for users, there might actually be an enjoyable Windows gaming experience on a handheld.
“There’s some uniqueness then when you’re supporting an open platform but you want it to work as appliance-like, as a game console,” the Xbox boss said of the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally. “And I think that’s where these two teams coming together can really create something great together.”
The separation of Microsoft’s Gaming and Windows teams has led to some major issues over the years. First, we have the Microsoft Store which was the first avenue for Xbox Play Anywhere titles on PC. It was absolutely rancid.
Next, there’s the ongoing Xbox App, which has improved massively in the past few years, but is also still pretty rank. Now that it’s built into Windows, you’d expect a really strong gaming experience through it, but you’d be wrong.
Hopefully, with the growing options for Linux gaming as more SteamOS devices release, that candle burning the hairs off Microsoft’s tuchus will make Windows a much better experience overall. Hopefully, the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally (what a mouthful of a name) is the start of something great. Then again, it’s Microsoft, so they’ll probably screw it up somehow.
About the Author
