Microsoft could also be pivoting to a multiplatform strategy for its largest video games, however that doesn’t imply it’s abandoning {hardware} simply but. The corporate reportedly has an Xbox accomplice handheld deliberate for 2025 as it really works on its next-gen consoles aiming for launch in 2027. It appears to be like just like the Swap 2 gained’t be the one handheld console hybrid gamers have to select from this yr.
That’s in response to a brand new report by Home windows Central. It claims the brand new machine shall be an Xbox-branded PC gaming handheld from an present OEM and that it’s codenamed “Keenan.” It’ll have an official Xbox information button and is at the moment deliberate to launch later this yr, with the successor to the Xbox Collection X/S technology of consoles greenlit for a deliberate launch as early as 2027. Notably, it sounds prefer it’ll be a single next-gen console, with the present Collection S probably subsumed by the hand held if it’s profitable.
The report additionally claims that the subsequent technology of controllers may function “direct-to-cloud connectivity.” It’s believed the Microsoft’s work with generative AI and the present Home windows platform for PC will each play a larger function in Xbox’s future as nicely. This dovetails with latest alerts from the corporate’s prime management.
Final yr, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer mentioned the corporate was exploring a gaming handheld however that a completed product was nonetheless a few years out. It’s doable that’s nonetheless the case, and that this 2025 “Xbox-branded” handheld is taken into account extra of a half-step in that course. Earlier this yr at CES 2025, Jason Ronald, Microsoft’s VP of “Subsequent Technology,” informed The Verge the corporate was the aiming to carry the “better of Xbox and Home windows collectively” for future PC gaming handhelds, seemingly via a brand new gaming-centric OS or OS layer that might compete extra instantly with SteamOS.
Replace; 3/10/25 5:30 p.m. ET: As clarified in an alternate between The Verge’s Tom Warren and Home windows Central’s Jez Corden, Keenan shall be one thing of a reskinned “accomplice” PC Gaming handheld operating this new software program layer, not a full-blown Xbox machine developed in-house.
These strikes come as rumors swirl about Sony engaged on bringing again its personal line of gaming handhelds and with Nintendo’s Swap 2 simply on the horizon. This time round, nevertheless, it doesn’t appear to be Microsoft plans to combat the competitors with exclusives. The corporate began bringing its video games to PlayStation 5 and the present Swap final yr, and its extra highly effective specs recommend we’ll see much more Xbox video games on Swap 2. Microsoft additionally beforehand dedicated to start out bringing Name of Obligation again to Nintendo’s platform in a single type or one other.
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