In 2024, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer told Polygon he couldn’t stop thinking about what an Xbox handheld could be. Months later, Spencer told Bloomberg Microsoft had indeed been thinking about it, but that it’s a piece of hardware that’s still years out from becoming a reality. That plan seems to have shifted: Windows Central reported Monday that Microsoft will debut a handheld gaming device in 2025 “if plans are met,” with hardware that’s being developed by a partner — something akin to Valve’s partnership with Lenovo to bring the SteamOS to the Legion Go S.
Microsoft’s own proprietary handheld is still in the works, according to Windows Central, and is expected to be years away, reportedly part of the corporation’s next-generation plans for 2027 alongside the Xbox Series X successor. Polygon has not independently confirmed the launch of an Xbox handheld — either in 2025, or in 2027 with a next-generation console — but we’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment.
The reported 2025 “partner handheld” is codenamed Keenan, per Windows Central, and “will look unmistakably ‘Xbox’ […] complete with an official Xbox guide button, and Xbox design sensibilities.” Details, otherwise, are slim, leaving lots of questions on what exactly the handheld is or could be. Is this a reskinned iteration on the ASUS ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, or another handheld? Something more unique to Xbox?
“I want my Lenovo Legion Go to feel like an Xbox,” Spencer told Polygon last year. “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 that I want?”
If Spencer has any say, the upcoming Xbox handheld, regardless of who manufactures it, will certainly attempt to have that Xbox feel.
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