Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer both acknowledged and poured cold water on persistent rumors about an imminent Xbox handheld announcement during a recent interview with Bloomberg.
“[E]xpectation is that we would do something,” Spencer said, while also noting work on such a project has yet to progress beyond market research and prototyping. “Longer term, I love us building devices. And I think our team could do some real innovative work, but we want to be informed by learning and what’s happening now.”
Xbox’s current focus is reportedly on improving the Xbox app on existing platforms and working closer with hardware developers to ensure a better experience for users.
Spencer admitted to being “a big fan of handhelds” in a Feb. 2024 conversation with The Verge, and a month later discussed his philosophy on handheld gaming with Polygon at the Game Developers Conference, no doubt contributing to the fervent cottage industry of rumormongers that tends to pop up around these sorts of topics.
“I want my Lenovo Legion Go to feel like an Xbox,” Spencer told Polygon editor-in-chief Chris Plante. “I brought [the Legion Go] with me to GDC. I’m on the airplane and I have this list of everything that makes it not feel like an Xbox. Forget about the brand. More like: Are all of my games there? Do all my games show up with the save [files] that I want?”
Back to the Bloomberg interview, Spencer said Xbox was open to further acquisitions, though maybe not one quite so big and arduous as Activision Blizzard, which cost just under $69 billion and kicked off a lengthy court case with the Federal Trade Commission before the company was officially brought into the fold in 2023. He also claimed Xbox “has never been more healthy” since laying off 2,500 workers and closing three studios.
“I feel pretty good about where this industry is going,” Spencer said before criticizing strategies like those that led to Sony’s expensive new PlayStation 5 Pro console. “To reach new players, we need to be creative and adaptive of new business models, new devices, new ways of access. We’re not going to grow the market with $1,000 consoles.”