The Nintendo Switch has been a huge success for Nintendo, dominating the gaming handheld segment. While Sony is trying a different approach with PlayStation Portal, Microsoft doesn't seem interested in entering that market.
Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft's games division, recently spoke to Eurogamer on the subject. According to him, there is no need for an Xbox Portable, as most of the company's games can already be enjoyed portable via third-party hardware.
We have a lot of games on Steam, and I think we've just seen in the Steam rankings that Linux is now ahead of Mac OS as a platform, and I believe Steam Deck had a lot to do with that. I know my ROG Ally is my Xbox down the street. Because almost all games support cross-save, so I can sit back and track my progress there. My friends will be there if I'm playing a multiplayer game. And then when I go home and I'm still on my console, it's really smooth.
Phil Spencer cites the ASUS handheld ROG Ally as an example. The device does everything an Xbox can do, and players still have access to their games and saves thanks to Game Pass.
Every time I sit down , I play with it [ROG Ally] – I'm playing a lot of Brotato right now – but why isn't it an Xbox? What does this have to do with the player experience? Forget the color of the plastic or the name on the back of it. What's different about this experience when I'm on the go than with my console? I think the differences are getting smaller and smaller for us. Because Game Pass is there, so my game library is there. The controls are basically the same, triggers, ABXY, two analog sticks. My saved games are there. So yeah, I don't need people to buy hardware from us specifically to play games. It's an incredible Xbox experience, even though we didn't build the device. And I think that's fine.
With third-party devices like the ROG Ally and Steam Deck allowing gamers to enjoy Game Pass titles portablely, the need for proprietary hardware from Microsoft may not be as useful.