Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer each acknowledged and poured chilly water on persistent rumors about an imminent Xbox handheld announcement throughout a latest interview with Bloomberg.
“[E]xpectation is that we’d do one thing,” Spencer stated, whereas additionally noting work on such a venture has but to progress past market analysis and prototyping. “Long term, I like us constructing gadgets. And I believe our crew may do some actual revolutionary work, however we wish to be told by studying and what’s occurring now.”
Xbox’s present focus is reportedly on enhancing the Xbox app on present platforms and dealing nearer with {hardware} builders to make sure a greater expertise for customers.
Spencer admitted to being “an enormous fan of handhelds” in a Feb. 2024 dialog with The Verge, and a month later mentioned his philosophy on handheld gaming with gamerjive on the Recreation Builders Convention, little question contributing to the fervent cottage trade of rumormongers that tends to pop up round these kinds of matters.
“I would like my Lenovo Legion Go to really feel like an Xbox,” Spencer informed gamerjive editor-in-chief Chris Plante. “I introduced [the Legion Go] with me to GDC. I’m on the airplane and I’ve this listing of the whole lot that makes it not really feel like an Xbox. Neglect concerning the model. Extra like: Are all of my video games there? Do all my video games present up with the save [files] that I would like?”
Again to the Bloomberg interview, Spencer stated Xbox was open to additional acquisitions, although possibly not one fairly so massive and arduous as Activision Blizzard, which value just below $69 billion and kicked off a prolonged court docket case with the Federal Commerce Fee earlier than the corporate was formally introduced into the fold in 2023. He additionally claimed Xbox “has by no means been extra wholesome” since shedding 2,500 employees and shutting three studios.
“I really feel fairly good about the place this trade goes,” Spencer stated earlier than criticizing methods like those who led to Sony’s costly new PlayStation 5 Professional console. “To succeed in new gamers, we have to be inventive and adaptive of latest enterprise fashions, new gadgets, new methods of entry. We’re not going to develop the market with $1,000 consoles.”
