4 reasons why Xbox needs to release a gaming handheld

We’re living in a bit of a renaissance for handheld gaming, reminding us how much fun it is to be able to take our games anywhere we want. This resurgence in portable gaming could also end up being the lifeline Xbox is looking for if it decides to shift its focus from the home console space. The Nintendo Switch blurred the line between handheld and console games, leading the way for others to enter with similar devices like the Steam Deck. Now, there are very few games you can’t play on the go in one form or another. Yet, only Nintendo of the big three console makers has staked a claim in that massive market.

It’s no secret that Xbox as a brand is struggling. The Series X and S are great consoles but are not selling anywhere close to their main competition, the PS5, and they aren’t selling enough games or subscriptions to make up for the costs. It has even resorted to publishing several first-party games on rival platforms to try and gain more sales. The rumor mill has been churning with whispers of a possible Xbox handheld device, and even Phil Spencer has been speaking about how he would like a better way to play Xbox games on handheld. While this is all still speculation, I believe that a dedicated handheld would be the best strategy Xbox could pursue given its current situation.

1 Xbox has lost the console wars

Fight on a different front

Since the original Xbox, no Microsoft console has ever “won” a generation in terms of sales. Even when it had almost everything going for it in the 360 generation, PlayStation ended up recovering and eking out a slight edge by the end. Then, the disastrous reveal and launch of the Xbox One put the entire brand into a downward spiral it still hasn’t recovered from.

At this point, Xbox has done just about everything it can to entice players back into its ecosystem. Game Pass, backward compatibility, and cloud streaming are all great but just haven’t moved the needle. With players now so tied to their preferred ecosystems, there’s very little that can pull them away. The handheld space is one where Xbox wouldn’t have to compete with PlayStation directly and could instead leverage all its services to outcompete other devices. The Steam Deck would be its biggest rival, but if an Xbox handheld could be more affordable and easier for casual gamers to simply pick up and play, it could find a whole new audience.

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2 The future is mobile

Living room consoles are dying

When I say mobile, I don’t simply mean your phone. Phones are part of it, but Xbox has already recognized that the idea of people needing a dedicated console hooked up to their TV won’t be the standard for much longer. We’re fast approaching a future where anything with a screen can play any game you want, and getting out of that market before it collapses would be a wise call.

An Xbox handheld would be the perfect transition from a dedicated console to Xbox essentially becoming just a service. You can already use Game Pass on PCs, phones, and smart TVs through streaming, so the groundwork is there. All that’s left is to wait for technology and internet infrastructure to catch up and make streaming viable for everyone. A handheld that could both stream and play native games would be the perfect halfway point for those who don’t have reliable or fast enough internet to take advantage of streaming but can then seamlessly transition when it is.

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3 It can be more affordable

Make it a no-brainer purchase

A major factor in why the Switch has sold so well, aside from Nintendo’s amazing exclusives, is how affordable it is. With the Switch Lite coming in at less than half the cost of the other consoles, it is both an easy pick for anyone on a budget and a cheap enough price to grab as a second console. When the next generation starts, Xbox could make waves by vastly undercutting PlayStation’s price.

This is the first generation where hardware costs haven’t come down nearly four years after launch. If that’s anything to go by, then whatever the next consoles look like will not only be more expensive but also stay at that price. A handheld will be cheaper to produce by default simply because it will be smaller, but Xbox doesn’t necessarily have to sacrifice competing in terms of power to make this happen. If it takes advantage of AI technologies like DLSS as well as cloud streaming, an Xbox handheld could potentially run games that look just as good as what a PS6 could at a fraction of the cost. Going back to the 360, it being so much less expensive than the PS3 at launch was a large component of why it got that early lead. This time around, though, a PS6 console could never cut its costs down as far as a handheld could.

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4 An open platform

All in one

wants you to be able to play its games on it. However, this is also a territory that PC is moving towards as well. Right now, you can already run Game Pass on your Steam Deck, but it takes a bit of work and isn’t as easy or convenient as console players expect.

An Xbox handheld could make itself the gold standard if it manages to offer an all-in-one system for as many players as possible. Obviously, Game Pass would be built-in, but having dedicated Steam and Epic Games Store apps that don’t require any workarounds would expand the audience well beyond Xbox’s typical ranges. The most difficult part of convincing someone to switch to a new ecosystem is that they have already invested a lot of time and money into another. If this Xbox handheld could let players bring all their PC games with them, that would be a massive barrier broken down. It would also make the platform almost irresistible in terms of offerings.