{"id":91998,"date":"2025-03-11T01:26:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T01:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/11\/an-xbox-ish-handheld-is-reportedly-coming-later-this-year\/"},"modified":"2025-03-11T01:26:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T01:26:36","slug":"an-xbox-ish-handheld-is-reportedly-coming-later-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/11\/an-xbox-ish-handheld-is-reportedly-coming-later-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"An Xbox-ish Handheld Is Reportedly Coming Later This Year"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Image: Asus \/ Microsoft \/ Kotaku<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Microsoft may be pivoting to a multiplatform approach<\/a><\/span> for its biggest games, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s abandoning hardware just yet. The company reportedly has an Xbox partner handheld planned for 2025 as it works on its next-gen consoles aiming for release in 2027. It looks like the Switch 2 won\u2019t be the only handheld console hybrid players have to choose from this year.<\/p>\n

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The Best Reveals From The Game Awards 2023<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

That\u2019s according to a new report by Windows Central<\/em><\/a><\/span>. It claims the new device will be an Xbox-branded PC gaming handheld from an existing OEM and that it\u2019s codenamed \u201cKeenan.\u201d It\u2019ll have an official Xbox guide button and is currently planned to launch later this year, with the successor to the Xbox Series X\/S generation of consoles greenlit for a planned launch as early as 2027. Notably, it sounds like it\u2019ll be a single next-gen console, with the current Series S potentially subsumed by the handheld if it\u2019s successful. <\/p>\n

The report also claims that the next generation of controllers might feature \u201cdirect-to-cloud connectivity.\u201d It\u2019s believed the Microsoft\u2019s work with generative AI and the existing Windows platform for PC will both play a greater role in Xbox\u2019s future as well. This dovetails with recent signals from the company\u2019s top leadership. <\/p>\n

Last year, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said the company was exploring a gaming handheld but that a finished product was still a couple of years out<\/a><\/span>. It\u2019s possible that\u2019s still the case, and that this 2025 \u201cXbox-branded\u201d handheld is considered more of a half-step in that direction. Earlier this year at CES 2025, Jason Ronald, Microsoft\u2019s VP of \u201cNext Generation,\u201d told The Verge<\/em><\/a><\/span> the company was the aiming to bring the \u201cbest of Xbox and Windows together\u201d for future PC gaming handhelds, seemingly through a new gaming-centric OS or OS layer that could compete more directly with SteamOS.<\/p>\n

Update;\u00a03\/10\/25 5:30 p.m. ET:<\/strong> As clarified in an exchange<\/a><\/span> between The Verge<\/em>\u2019s Tom Warren and Windows Central<\/em>\u2019s Jez Corden, Keenan will be something of a reskinned \u201cpartner\u201d PC Gaming handheld running this new software layer, not a full-blown Xbox device developed in-house. <\/p>\n

These moves come as rumors swirl about Sony working on bringing back its own line of gaming handhelds<\/a><\/span> and with Nintendo\u2019s Switch 2 just on the horizon. This time around, however, it doesn\u2019t seem like Microsoft plans to fight the competition with exclusives. The company started bringing its games to PlayStation 5 and the existing Switch last year, and its more powerful specs suggest we\u2019ll see even more Xbox games on Switch 2. Microsoft also previously committed to start bringing Call of Duty <\/em>back to Nintendo\u2019s platform in one form or another. <\/p>\n

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Image: Asus \/ Microsoft \/ Kotaku Microsoft may be pivoting to a multiplatform approach for its biggest games, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s abandoning hardware<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}