Xbox shared some big reveals for Gamescom 2025. We've known for awhile they're jumping into the handheld market, and now we know how soon we'll be going hands-on with the TWO new devices in Canada.
Both handhelds are set to launch on October 16, 2025, landing just in time for the holiday season.
Xbox has been doing a great job in genearl of making Xbox games playable on a variety of devices from your PC to your smartphone (an experience best enjoyed when pairing your iPhone or Android device with a decent mobile controller).
What Exactly Are These New Xbox Handhelds?
These consoles are being made in partnership with ASUS's Republic of Gamers (ROG), so they'll live alongside the existing ROG Ally X. But now we have the ROG Xbox Ally and the more powerful ROG Xbox Ally X.
These will basically be portable PCs that are purpose-built for gaming. They look a bit like a Nintendo Switch or a Steam Deck, but they're designed to make it super easy to access your games from Xbox, Battle.net, and other major PC game stores wherever you happen to be.
What remains unknown is the final price.
Canadian retail pricing along with pre-order information is expected in the next few weeks.
Making PC Games Handheld-Friendly
One of the headaches with playing PC games on a handheld is that they aren't always designed for a small screen or built-in controls. You can spend more time tweaking settings than actually playing. Xbox is aiming to fix that.
They've introduced a new Handheld Compatibility Program to make more games work perfectly right out of the box. Xbox is working directly with game developers to test and optimize thousands of titles. Here's what that means for you:
Easy-to-Understand Badges: In your game library, you'll see simple labels like "Handheld Optimized" or "Mostly Compatible." This tells you at a glance whether a game will run great or might need a few small adjustments.
Performance Indicator: A "Windows Performance Fit" indicator will also give you an idea of how well you can expect a game to run on your handheld.
The overal goal is that you spend less time messing with settings so you can just focus on the main event - gaming!
For a deeper dive, check out the Xbox Wire blog post about the upcoming consoles right here.
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