Microsoft Re-joins Handheld Gaming Fight Against Nintendo's Switch (yahoo.com)
- Reference: 0178810488
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/08/21/187249/microsoft-re-joins-handheld-gaming-fight-against-nintendos-switch
- Source link: https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-joins-handheld-gaming-fight-120823552.html
Two models arrive at launch: the standard Xbox Ally with AMD Ryzen Z2 A processor and the premium Xbox Ally X featuring Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, 24GB RAM, 1TB storage, and 80Wh battery. Microsoft's Handheld Compatibility Program pre-verifies thousands of PC games for portable play. Pricing remains unannounced.
[1] https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-joins-handheld-gaming-fight-120823552.html
[2] https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/08/20/rog-xbox-ally-handheld-release-date-october-features/
Microsoft's goal is pretty clear (Score:4, Interesting)
Do away with the Xbox but keep the Xbox platform.
What they want is what 3DO wanted but with a much bigger share of the pie. They want to have consumers pay upfront for unsubsidized hardware sold in a profit by companies like Asus. But then they want to have the platform so they can snatch 30% off the top of game sales.
Steam does that and Microsoft wants to be steam. The difference is steam goes out of its way not to be evil and the platform they provide is extremely good at promoting games. So much so that many developers have made the point that steam promoting their games was so valuable it was worth more than their entire marketing budget and more than the 30% steam was taking.
I can't see Microsoft doing that because I can't see them leaving even a scrap of a dime of a penny on the table that they could be sucking out of developers and gamers.
Re: (Score:3)
It's way, way worse than you're suggesting. Steam at least sells you the game. Microsoft wants to sell you a subscription to Game Pass. In the future they hope bundle the pod you can live in and bugs you can eat along with the subscription.
Re: Microsoft's goal is pretty clear (Score:1)
You'll own nothing and enjoy it!! Honestly screw all subscription corporations. I pay for the product, I own it. End of story.
Re: (Score:2)
To answer your last question, it will be (however well it is optimized), it has been well reported that this will be a feature of Windows 11 not just the Xbox Ally devices.
Re: (Score:2)
"Of course itÃ(TM)s running on a lower resolution than normal PCs run, but since itÃ(TM)s still emulating through Linux, I am surprised that it isnÃ(TM)t noticeably worse at times."
Nothing is being emulated.
Direct3D, if used, is translated to Vulkan. Same for DirectInput to SDL and so on.
Translating one type of call to another is cheap.
Good luck with that (Score:2)
I think one of the main reasons people are buying the switch because it's the only platform for nintendo games, it's nice that it's portable. The rest of the platforms focus on graphics which get's hampered if you go portable. I don't think MSFT will get the unit numbers that nintendo does, just because they are going portable, but they can always try. They definitely won't get good sales if they have a high price point and nintendo doesn't.
Re: (Score:1)
no one wants full windows 11 on ANYTHING let alone your portable should-be-only-gaming device.
The video game thunderdome! (Score:2)
Where only one console comes out victorious, defeated by it's rivals!
Except for the part where people buy multiple consoles, or have a specific game taste that is only catered for by a specific console or another, and different price points...
Also the elephant in the room that is the iphone.
And I'm disappointed both of them (Score:2)
Been playing a lot on my PSP lately, actually.
Re: And I'm disappointed both of them (Score:2)
I recently fixed up the old NDS with a new battery. Still plays the games I happen to like.
ZUNE? (Score:2)
Maybe they should come up with a handheld device to play music. After all, Microsoft is well known for innovation. Look for instance at that um er ...
Expected Hugo Martin to Squirm (Score:1)
"Doom will be... as you expect." He sounds like he ported his expectations to an expected xbox. Could Jiminy Glick not shock Howard Stern?
Wait, what?!?! (Score:2)
I swear those were pretty decent specs for a desktop PC just about... two weeks ago?
And now you get that in a handheld?
So this is what future shock feels like.
No price yet (Score:2)
My bet is $799
Re: (Score:3)
$899
[1]https://www.theshortcut.com/p/... [theshortcut.com]
[1] https://www.theshortcut.com/p/asus-rog-xbox-ally-x-price-has-been-revealed-and-you-better-start-saving
Re: (Score:2)
Yikes. People were upset over the PS5 Pro price and that was for a full console. The specs on this put it squarely below a 6500 XT. The AI cores seem like a waste of space that could have been devoted to more shader cores.
I think that they'll at least be able to avoid having scalpers buy up everything and relist it on eBay though as I can't imagine too many people would want to pay that much for a handheld, much less anything on top of that.
Re: (Score:2)
AI cores are useful for upscaling, the thing Nvidia calls DLSS.
Unfortunately I would say, it is a big part of modern game engines: they render at a low resolution, allowing for costly effects like ray tracing, and then upscale using AI techniques, deep learning to be precise. They can even use similar techniques to artificially improve framerate (frame generation). I say "unfortunately" because when used by lazy developers as a substitute for proper optimization, as it is often the case, it looks like shit.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought that AMD's upscaling solution was done on their regular GPU cores, but I'll admit that I haven't been following that for a while. Frame generation is only really good if you have a high frame rate to start with anyhow, otherwise it's just going to create a lot of additional input latency and make the controls feel sluggish as the interpolated frames can't respond to input. A handheld is probably the worst use case for that kind of technology as the hardware isn't going to be powerful enough to del