
Phil Spencer yesterday appeared on the Kinda Funny Games Xcast, and while the focus was mostly on the state of Redfall and Xbox's gaming division, we did spot a new backdrop addition we haven't seen before.
The possible teaser appeared behind Phil on his now-famous shelving - known for giving fans a glimpse of what's on the horizon. On this occasion, a brand new 'Asus ROG Ally' handheld gaming device appears, as pointed out in the tweet down below. Phil's been seen with a Nintendo Switch in similar situations in the past, so perhaps this was a gift from Asus as well...
The Asus ROG Ally arrives next week on May 11th and is being marketed as a "Windows Gaming Handheld" that pushes the boundaries of PC gaming on the go - allowing users to pick up and play their extensive libraries wherever they are. We should have some of our own impressions of the device in the coming days here at Pure Xbox.
What do you think Phil is up to with this new Asus ROG Ally? Leave your best guesses below.
Comments 16
@Kaloudz Real device yeah, comparable to the Steam Deck sort of thing. We're hoping to go hands on for some impressions on it!
Jesus, going hard on these Phil articles huh
I'm ordering one as soon as preorders go live on 11th. Looks an awesome piece of hardware. Could even end up being my main gaming platform
@PsBoxSwitchOwner Yep, one more to go 😏
@Kaloudz Its a Asus Hand Held Gaming PC that's more 'powerful' than a Steam Deck. Its windows based too and the most powerful handheld gaming.
As I said, I don't think MS need to make their own 'Portable' Xbox with Asus (and no doubt MSi, Acer, Lenovo, HP etc could follow too), Steam Deck, Mobiles/tablets and peripherals to turn them into handheld gaming devices, etc - all playing 'Xbox' and/or Game Pass Cloud games. Asus at least should let you play 'Locally' on its Hardware...
I have registered my 'interesting' in buying one when they launch...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5lq4Q7YAjE video from Asus introducing it...
@Kezelpaso Didn't he specifically mention in the Kinda Funny vid that he had been playing around with it?
He literally said in the interview he had been playing it. Have to say I'm interested, if you get a handheld that can manage to link into pc gamepass, steam and the epic store, I think that's pretty compelling. Specs look pretty beefy too, I'm waiting for the price though.
How much is this device in the uk ?
@themightyant I heard him mention the system generally but didn't catch any specifics... to be honest I'm tangled up in this interview - it's a goldmine! 😄
@Kezelpaso It is! I listened to it twice. I love that they didn't hold back the tough questions and he didn't hold back from frank answers. That's very rare. And while it's just words, as Phil acknowledged, he seemed earnest. Parris and Gary also gave him some well needed love, between the direct questions. Tough week or two for the Xbox boss!
Especially loved Gary's monologue about failure, but I am biased, i've been reading/watching his stuff for 20-30 years (he also co-wrote Rogue One and Telltale's The Walking Dead S1). Much like Rich from Digital Foundry I have rose tinted glasses all the way back to the Mean Machines and PC Gamer magazine era of the 90s.
I thought that was just a white switch. Good to see he can still have shelf surprises after the month they had. They definitely aren't making their own handheld, just going to partner up with everyone else. The local play for gamepass is a great feature for the ROG though.
Was looking at this earlier, as much as I love my backbone one I'd prefer to play handheld games natively and the steam deck just looks too bulky. But from what I'm reading it could cost €700-€800 euros which is just way too much for me.
@Kaloudz Its literally a gaming PC in a hand-held and windows based so you can access Steam, Game Pass PC etc. Its Asus who make arguably some of the 'best' Gaming PC's & Laptops on the market in terms of build quality and design.
I don't think its going to be like a 'PC' in that you can run MS Office, Adobe Photoshop etc or edit your video's to upload on youtube - not 'Windows 11' but 'windows' based. Like Consoles, it has its own APU - Combined CPU and GPU in one chip and a decent amount of RAM too, a 1080p 500nit Screen (so great in bright rooms) and runs 'PC' games - giving you the chance to pick your own settings and optimise it the way 'you' want to either get the best visuals, highest frame rate or a great balance between the two...
@UltimateOtaku91 @Kaloudz Rumors have been saying about $700 us. One rumor said 600 for a lesser model. Well know next week I guess. Personally I have a hard time justifying over $400 on a handheld because it's prone to damage or wearing out by nature. I'm interested but probably will still get the logic g cloud for cloud and remote play. The main thing is it's "cheap" compared to prior handheld windows pcs like gpd win 2 that was like $1100.
It's literally a mini gaming laptop.
It also has an egpu mobile dock to give it boosted performance on the tv. But the dock alone is over$1k so the whole kit is still a nearly $2000 gaming PC you can take with you (and risk breaking )
@Kaloudz Yeah i mean you don't need the dock but then it's still a $600-800 toy that could get stick drift, trigger failure or be dropped, scratched, or something. Best gadget for dedicated PC gamers that don't mind large price tags for disposable products. And there's plenty of those. For me, I think cloud and remote play locally will do the same job for half the price. But then I have huge xb and ps libraries and my only steam games are half life 2 and supreme commander 2 lol.
And I thought Logitech g cloud was pricy!
@Kaloudz That ability is coming eventually. I'm kind of surprised it hasn't happened yet. Probably due to the abk thing.
They said "select" games at first, and I don't know how select that means, but I'm certain eventually it will be mostly the whole library, because why not include the stadia sales model as an option? I'm also looking forward to that, but for me the one thing that keeps me from using cloud a LOT more than I do and remote playing more of lack of quick resume. I'm hoping they add that to cloud someday because that's the one thing holding it back from really competing with switch, and Ally, Deck etc is lack of suspend states. I play cloud games and then keep replaying the same part because I didn't get to a save point.
If they add quick resume and playing any game,I think cloud will have a big moment for the masses. Any game is coming. Quick resume I'm only dreaming of for now though.
Yeah, maybe it's the wisdom of experience but I just can't get excited for really expensive tech toys that are guaranteed to be forgotten in a year or two or 4.. Those things cost more than a console, are doomed to wearing out, could be accidentally damaged, and guaranteed to be obsolete in a year. Neat toys, would love to have one, but not at those prices. At the end of the day is a custom fit laptop, priced like a laptop.
Still kicking around getting the logic g cloud though. Terribly overpriced but a bit more down to earth and not THAT unreasonable for an Android tablet. Sony is also rumored to be making a remote play device but mostly about remote play and not cloud. And even if it were in very sure it wouldn't support anything but Plus.
I did get a little Retroid Pocket 3 to be a teeny little pocket remote play/cloud streamer. Really pleased with it so far for quick play. Screens tiny I wouldn't try to play starfield on it. But for pentiment or soul hackers it really fills the 3ds void
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