Microsoft could also be pivoting to a multiplatform method 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 seems just like the Swap 2 received’t be the one handheld console hybrid gamers have to select from this yr.
That’s in line with a brand new report by Home windows Central. It claims the brand new machine will likely 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 present deliberate to launch later this yr, with the successor to the Xbox Sequence 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 Sequence S probably subsumed by the hand held if it’s profitable.
The report additionally claims that the following technology of controllers would possibly function “direct-to-cloud connectivity.” It’s believed the Microsoft’s work with generative AI and the prevailing Home windows platform for PC will each play a higher function in Xbox’s future as properly. This dovetails with current indicators from the corporate’s prime management.
Final yr, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer stated the corporate was exploring a gaming handheld however that a completed product was nonetheless a few years out. It’s attainable 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,” advised The Verge the corporate was the aiming to carry the “better of Xbox and Home windows collectively” for future PC gaming handhelds, seemingly by means of a brand new gaming-centric OS or OS layer that would compete extra straight with SteamOS.
Replace; 3/10/25 5:30 p.m. ET: As clarified in an change between The Verge’s Tom Warren and Home windows Central’s Jez Corden, Keenan will likely be one thing of a reskinned “accomplice” PC Gaming handheld working 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 look like Microsoft plans to struggle the competitors with exclusives. The corporate began bringing its video games to PlayStation 5 and the prevailing Swap final yr, and its extra highly effective specs counsel we’ll see much more Xbox video games on Swap 2. Microsoft additionally beforehand dedicated to begin bringing Name of Obligation again to Nintendo’s platform in a single kind or one other.
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