Xbox Series... M?

[Charlietus]

I don't really get the point of these handhelds vs. current phone/pad performance with sidebar controllers. For playtime you can add some powerbank.

Things like Steam Decks, PS portal and the like make sense because attaching a controller to your phone is not user friendly. It's awkward at best. You also use your phone for other things so while gaming you can't doom scroll the social media of your choice.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

... so while gaming you can't doom scroll the social media of your choice.

Surely a huge advantage!

 

[Nisaaru]

Things like Steam Decks, PS portal and the like make sense because attaching a controller to your phone is not user friendly. It's awkward at best. You also use your phone for other things so while gaming you can't doom scroll the social media of your choice.

How is it awkward? You just frame your phone/pad with these controllers you control the form factor with the flexibility to decide the size/display/performance/price?

If you don't like to use your prime Phone/Pad get another one for gaming. Come on

Granted I haven't used neither of them but I haven't seen any convincing explanation yet why that's not as good or better. I mean a current apple Mx or the latest Snapdragon is a lot of faster than these AMD handheld APUs. In the end phone/pad APUs use the most advanced processes and designs at volumes dwarfing these handheld APUs.

 

[QPlayer]

The question is, can these handheld consoles be connected to a TV? If so, it could be Series S level or better quality.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

For whatever reason, consumers don't want to connect controllers to their phones. It's likely not "cool".

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I think the main issue is it's another thing to carry around. You don't want your mobile tied up with a controller when it needs to be used as a 'phone', which is often. If you are going to use your mobile as downtime, you need the controller adaptor to hand. I think consumers have a very low tolerance for 'faff' and they'd rather make do with an easy, okay solution than a better more difficult solution.

 

[JPT]

My personal feeling is that is a very low subset of people that cares about a handheld Xbox or PS ref Steamdeck numbers, albeit Valve has not pumped them out and they are not officially available worldwide. Still belive that would not change the numbers much.

Now people might point at switch, but most of the people I know, use it as their main console that happens to be portable thingy. And its another target demographic than the PS/XB crowd. Then again I am old and my "kids" are like 30, so

 

[Johnny Awesome]

It's a niche product, but I think MS knows this. It only really makes sense in the context of getting S ports running on it.

If Xbox is headed to a world with 50 million console users, I don't think more than 5 million would get the portable M.

For myself, I'm split on it. I'd love to be able to play on the go, but it's probably a bad idea for me to own one. Especially if I want to stay married.

 

[eastmen]

I don't really get the point of these handhelds vs. current phone/pad performance with sidebar controllers. For playtime you can add some powerbank.

My steam deck has a larger screen than my phone , has its own battery , has access to my full steam library and has a 2tb nvme and 1tb micro sd card for storage. I have all my favorite games from past consoles and my favorite pc games. All games i purchase will run on my deck and pc.

 

[eastmen]

My personal feeling is that is a very low subset of people that cares about a handheld Xbox or PS ref Steamdeck numbers, albeit Valve has not pumped them out and they are not officially available worldwide. Still belive that would not change the numbers much.

Now people might point at switch, but most of the people I know, use it as their main console that happens to be portable thingy. And its another target demographic than the PS/XB crowd. Then again I am old and my "kids" are like 30, so

Like you say its all dependent on the age group. My nephews are all over 12 but my cousins have younger kids and none of them play consoles they are either on their parents phone , ipad or switch in handheld mode.

I think it be easier to lure a kid that grew up with a switch to another handheld device vs a standard console. My nephews all love their steam decks and i've now built them gaming pcs.

 

[Cyan]

Xbox head Phil Spencer has teased Xbox releasing its own handheld device to ensure gamers have access to all their games everywhere they go.

Xbox tease new handheld while Sony quietly preps its own challenger

As for Xbox, the head of Xbox gaming, Phil Spencer, has once again teased the existence of an Xbox handheld device, with the CEO talking to Justine about what Xbox fans could be excited about this year. Spencer responded by saying the following:

We've teased and talked about handhelds and I'm very excited because we both travel some and sometimes you can't always take your console or my whole gaming desktop with me. But it is really around building the experience around the person and that's the part that gets me most excited.

This is not a single device at the center, it's not one game, it is the player at the center and make sure all of your games are available, all of your save games, all of your entitlements are available wherever you go, so that gaming can continue to grow as a form of entertainment.