Does No Native Xbox Handheld Matter?

We got word that Microsoft has decided to put its attempt to make a native Xbox Handheld on the backburner. Instead, it will be focusing on the third-party iteration it has by working on with Asus for a release this year. It’ll be interesting if we see something of this at the Xbox Showcase. In any case, does it really matter? I do not believe it does for now at least.

Does it make sense for Microsoft to make an official handheld? Well, there’s an argument there for it. If Xbox is the leading Game Pass driven way of playing games. You’d think that a potential handheld device would be something that would fit like a glove. Maybe, just maybe, there’s a case to say that they’re not ready yet.

Maybe they’re waiting for the specs to really up their game so they can put something out there that really is a trademark Xbox like experience. Game Pass is a real driving force on console attachment rates. A handheld would really allow Microsoft to implement their experiences in a mobile way even more.

I think maybe the Asus handheld becomes more of a stepping stone or an evolution of what the native one will seemingly become later down the line.

The fact is Microsoft has had a lot of success with its games output this year. That’s not showing any signs of slowing down. So I believe the Asus could be the first real iteration of an evolution of Xbox on handheld natively, if you will. All signs are leading us to that assumption anyway.

In any case, Halo is going to be coming back in a big way also. I think having them games running on the native handheld in the future. In all its glory, and at the best performance possible along with all Xbox games would be the likely result Microsoft would want to happen. However, they’re going to have competition from Sony in this space. Of course, you can never dismiss the Nintendo Switch 2 in this. I just think the next line of handheld technology is going to be right up there with the best it’s been. If anything, both companies are waiting on the opportunity.

Some people might not even see a point in Xbox having a handheld. However, I think there is a case of them ‘just being there’ and being ‘good competition’. Not to mention, having that level of parity across all devices is universally the Xbox way and bringing that experience to you seamlessly is something that no company is going to want to miss the boat on.