Xbox Branded Handheld to Launch This Year, According to new Report – WGB

Xbox has not been quiet about its plans to enter the hand held area recently. Whereas it hasn’t revealed concrete plans about what type the hand held will take or when it would come out, Xbox head-honcho Phil Spencer has overtly mentioned the thought, although at the time he indicated they were still years away from launching it.

Nevertheless, a brand new report suggests an Xbox handheld system is perhaps launching as early as this 12 months.

Jez Corden from Window’s Central has the pertinent info. He reveals that Xbox is working with a third-party to launch an Xbox branded handheld, with a launch date pencilled in for this 12 months.

“Codename ‘Keenan,’ this gaming handheld will look unmistakably ‘Xbox’ we’re instructed, full with an official Xbox information button, and Xbox design sensibilities,” mentioned Jez.

He goes on to elucidate that the system will possible be extra PC oriented, alongside the strains of a Steam Deck or Asus ROG Ally.

“On condition that it is a accomplice system, just like Lenovo’s SteamOS partnership with Valve, I anticipate this handheld to be extra PC-oriented. It’ll almost definitely run full Home windows, placing the Microsoft Retailer and PC Sport Go entrance and middle, alongside the power to put in issues like Steam,” Jez says.

This ties in with earlier Home windows Central reporting by Samuel Tolbert, who wrote in December of 2024 that Microsoft was apparently considering 3rd parties to make Xbox branded devices.

“We’ve even heard that Microsoft is exploring choices round letting third-parties construct Xbox-branded units, one thing that would lengthen so far as letting them straight use the Xbox working system,” wrote Tolbert.

It’s not just Xbox, either, as Sony is also reportedly working on a handheld based on their Portal streaming device.

Naturally, the report by Jez appears to battle with what Phil Spencer mentioned, however in his reporting Jez feedback on this 12 months’s deliberate handheld as being a special system to Xbox’x personal internally developed machine.

“For now, I perceive that Microsoft’s next-gen {hardware} plans embrace a premium successor to the highly effective Xbox Collection X, alongside its personal Xbox gaming handheld, and a number of other new controller choices,” mentioned Jez. “Tentatively, these new console units are slated for 2027.”

Jez is, after all, additionally overtly discussing Xbox’s plans for a brand new era console as nicely, one thing which the corporate has overtly confirmed it’s already engaged on. Normally information that an organization is engaged on its subsequent console is barely price speaking about as a result of it’s a given – {hardware} developement is a near-continous factor, in any case – however with Xbox shifting over to third-party publishing on a number of platforms, there’s numerous questions on what the way forward for Xbox goes to be. Jez’s stories would possibly assist alleviate some fears that Xbox will abandon the {hardware} area fully.