Phil Spencer, Microsoft‘s head of Xbox, has been thinking a lot about handheld gaming lately. He’s tried out devices like the Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, and Lenovo Legion Go, and he can’t help but wonder how he could make them feel more like Xbox.
“I want my Lenovo Legion Go to feel like an Xbox,” Spencer told Polygon during an annual Game Developers Conference interview. “I brought [the Legion Go] with me to GDC. I’m on the aeroplane and I have this list of everything that makes it not feel like an Xbox. Forget about the brand. More like: 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.”
Spencer imagines turning on a handheld device and seeing a full-screen Xbox app that looks and feels like a TV’s Xbox dashboard. “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.”
While dreaming about the perfect Xbox handheld is fun, Spencer knows that making it a reality is a different story. The Xbox team, led by Roanne Sones, is looking into “different hardware form factors and things that [they] could go do” as it plans the future of Xbox hardware. “What should we build that will find new players?” Spencer said. “That will allow people to play at times when they couldn’t go play [in the past]?”
Spencer sees two ways to bring the Xbox experience to handheld devices: either make a special Xbox handheld or make the Xbox software work better on Windows devices like the Ally and Legion Go. “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.”Spencer has always wanted Xbox to be more than just a box where you play games at home. He wants the Xbox experience to follow players wherever they like to play games. This idea also applies to handheld gaming.
“From a game creator standpoint,” Spencer said, “I can then go build a single version of my game that spans more hardware and reaches more customers. And I would say for players, it reduces the friction. Like, 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].”
While Spencer didn’t say that Microsoft is making an Xbox handheld, he did hint that the Xbox team is working on some creative new ideas for gaming hardware, just like they have for gaming software in the past. “I think it’s important,” said Spencer. “You and I, we’ve been around for a couple of days. Look at the real inflection points in our industry, like look at the Wii. It was hardware innovation that was linked with great software innovation.”
It seems like Phil Spencer and the Xbox team are working hard to find ways to bring the Xbox experience to handheld gaming, whether that means making a special Xbox handheld or making Xbox games work better on other devices. As gaming keeps changing, it will be exciting to see what new ideas Microsoft comes up with for playing games on the go.
