After nearly a year of speculation, rumors, court case document leaks, and weird hints from the head of Xbox, this morning we got confirmation that the long-desired handheld Xbox is real — kind of.
Phil Spencer has been cheeky about handhelds so many times in the past, saying that they should “probably make one,” leading many to wonder if this holiday season’s Xbox console refresh would also include some kind of Steam Deck or Switch competitor.
However, this morning in a new interview with Bloomberg, Spencer plunged a dagger straight into the hype. He confirmed that they are indeed working on a new Xbox handheld, but that they’re still firmly in the prototype stage and anything they might release is a few years out.
I never really expected that Xbox would get some new kind of hardware out the door this year, even amidst all the fanboy hype over a potential handheld. I’ve seen a lot of positive takes on this new confirmation, and speculation that it means that great things must be in the works — but Microsoft is also giving their competitors several more years to build additional market share as their console hardware division continues to languish in last place.
