Bet that linux vs windows performance video did it in. The exec who thinks linux desktop doesn't even exist saw this and immediately shat their pants in rage.
this post was submitted on 30 May 2025
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Cool. I’ll just be over here happily playing my Steam Deck.
That’s why they’re doing this. The sleeping dragon is waking up. They’re gonna pour all of their marketing effort into killing the Steam Deck because of the threat it represents for consumer Windows.
Maybe even get Xbox gamepass on it.
Im honestly not sure why they're making a handheld Xbox after their "everything is an xbox" push. Why have just an Xbox when you can get anything else PLUS an Xbox for likely cheaper?
If M$ was smart, they'd develop a version of Windows optimized for gaming. But they can't do that without implying that desktop Windows is inferior for games.
They already have the Xbox framework. I don't understand why it's so difficult to just use that for gaming and give the handheld the ability to launch a lightweight version of Windows similar to the easy way Steam OS will let you exit to Linux desktop.
There are a lot of edge cases. You have to handle external launchers, external error prompts; basically anything that requires you to Alt+Tab. One of the things Valve did a decade ago was the stuff that got rolled into GameScope that ensures that they never lose focus of the game window. Even with the resources to transform Windows this way, it will still take time.
While I agree that the actual code base needs to be develop and augmented on the backend to make this work, that's not really what I'm saying. I'm pointing out that they already have the visual design and working template for a handheld based OS ( navigation and so on). Just that coupled with something like what they had with Windows 10 (the tablet interface for 10 was better than 11) would be fine. It could literally be an Xbox version of steam' big picture mode (because you can launch directly into it from Windows on 10). There even already exists a slimmed down version of Windows 11 to save on resource hogging.
The steam deck has been out long enough for them to have implemented this kind of thing. They've had time to design it. They've just been using that time to deliberately figure out how to shoehorn AI and telemetry and the rest into it because at the end of the day they still want to siphon up all that data.
I agree. They've had time if they cared about making this product before the Steam Deck was a success, but much like with cloud infrastructure, or search engines, or MP3 players, or mobile, or game consoles in general, they only really cared about it after someone else made a great version of what they could have been doing themselves.
The Xbox system is a windows based system optimised to run on the consoles hardware. It has been since launch. Modifying it for handhelds with the ability to navigate to a desktop environment. The addition of a desktop environment isn't so difficult that it should take three years to accomplish. They launched windows 11 4 years ago and it didn't take but a few months for them to start shoehorning AI into every crevice of it.
Asus has a product already in production that could be used for the purposes of test bench testing and development. The original ROG Ally is even around the same price point as a steam deck.
So all in all the only two excuses MS has are that they are bad at understanding trends and getting in on the ground floor, and they are bad at optimising windows specifically because that goes against their business plan to gather user data and weaponize that data against their competitors.
All.in all we don't have an Xbox handheld at this point because they're greedy and fail to act on trend analysis.
They're probably building off Windows RT (the locked down variant designed for ARM tablets).
If they were smart they'd imitate some of how SteamOS runs games in a modified WinRT environment - TLDR do NOT start up the entire Win32 runtime and desktop environment by default, don't run stuff like printer services and whatnot, just run a simplified sandbox and window manager with just the APIs needed to run the games similar to Proton. Then let the user switch to desktop mode as needed, but don't run it when gaming.
I’m guessing this is basically how the Xbox works already.
It's not so much Win32 though on Xbox, the biggest similarity is the x86 CPU and the shared kernel and some security stuff
Edit: forgot the obvious, DirectX
That is literally what they’re doing.
And failing, apparently
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At this rate they should brand it as a Zune device.
They would instantly have my attention. The Zune was dope.
Why does this thing look like it fell into a ravine.
When you start from Windows NT and vibe code for 31 years.
It's their own fault they couldn't see a demand for handheld gaming.
To be fair, every company was sure handhelds would die and mobile games would take over everything. Then the Switch happened.
Anyone that has ever played a game on a phone knew that would never happen.
And how many years since the Switch? Even the Steam Deck was an open secret for years.
So far as I can think, wasn't the only handheld that failed the Playstation Vita? And that had very visible reasons for the failure - designing itself around an obtuse storage medium, and requiring first-party memory cards. Even with those drawbacks and with no first-party support, it had a tremendous following.
It honestly could still be a worthwhile device to chain off of, since none of the current offerings fit in a pants pocket.
Was a really great emulation handheld till its oen hardware got emulated, then the new nintendo 3ds beat it since theres not good emulation of the 3D effects yet.
I love the Vita, and you're right, you can hack it to accept SD Cards, use native PSP/PS1 emulation in any game and a lot of homebrew ports.
PS: If you're willing to get third party PC Handhelds, the Ayaneo Air 1S is the closest thing the Vita form factor I know. 5.5" OLED screen, but the bezel is thicker and it has longer grips. It's a 2023 device, so I'm interested to know what they'll do with the next line of AMD chips
Much as I hate Nintendo now, their contribution to gaming can't be denied. First they revived it from the crash in 1983, then they showed that there's a market for a hybrid console/handheld device, paving the way for PC handhelds.
Heck a lot of "gimmicks" nintendo was mocked for ended up copied by sony and microsoft. The only reason nintendo is like it is now is cause of copying back the bad practices sony and microsoft pioneered like paying for server connectivity and games not fully being on the physical media that you buy.
The loss of Reggie and Iwata are sorely felt. Nintendo is just run by generic corporate suits now, and it really shows.
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This is how Microsoft has operated since day 1:
- they let Dartmouth take the lead with Dartmouth BASIC and followed up with Altair BASIC (Microsoft’s very first product)
- they let Gary Kildall take the lead with CP/M and followed up with DOS
- they let WordPerfect take the lead and followed up with Word
- they let VisiCalc and Lotus 123 take the lead and followed up with Excel
- they let Apple take the lead on GUI with the Mac and followed up with Windows
- they let Netscape take the lead and followed up with IE
- they let Sony take the lead with PlayStation and followed up with Xbox
- they let Apple take the lead with iPad and followed up with Surface
- now they’re letting Valve take the lead with SteamDeck and following up with their own handheld
"Let" is that the wrong word. Microsoft was setup specifically to make BASIC for the Altair. DOS they stumbled into because CP/M dropped the ball. Every other product, they've been chasing new markets that they didn't think of being in.
I'm critical about Xbox handheld/portable because it was so obvious that that's where the demand would come from.
However, they've been better at monetizing their other software and services better than anyone else though.
My point here is that none of these cases feature Microsoft inventing a brand new product and trying to market it for the first time. Their whole strategy from the very beginning was to look for existing products with existing markets and try to conquer them. They even had a name for a variant of this strategy (targeted at open standards) which the US DoJ famously discovered during the antitrust trial:
There is absolutely zero chance a windows handheld gaming device succeeds, what the actual fuck are they thinking, lol.
What do you mean? The ROG Ally has been successful. It’s a great device.
It's powerful, but the device isn't "great." It suffers from poor ASUS quality control and support. Let's also not forget the notorious overheating SD card slot because they thought it was a good idea to put it next to the exhaust. It's a poorly thought out design especially compared to the Steam Deck. Valve's effort is still the best on the market.
So nothing Windows related
I bought mine used with the SD card slot busted and I still think it’s great. Maybe because I didn’t pay 600 bucks for it!Definitely my favorite handheld ever.
I think the Steam Deck is pretty neat and I love the design of the device itself (I am not enthusiastic about the Ally’s L337G4mer aesthetics, and even less so with the monstrosity above), but for me not having access to Gamepass is a deal breaker so I’d never consider it. Maybe when I fully jump into PC gaming sometime soon I’ll switch my tune. But I digress. Other than the SD issue I’ve found that the ROG Ally is a very capable device and I have seen no other issues with it to be honest. The software it comes with is actually pretty good and makes it so that you don’t have to deal with Windows almost at all. The coolest thing is that you can dock it and you basically have a mid end workstation too.
My fist handheld was the Gameboy Color so it just boggles my mind how far we’ve come.
Right? Handheld PCs are incredible. They're the best thing about modern gaming, imo. I dock my steam deck to my TV with a wireless kb/m, and it's my main PC setup. It's the ultimate minimalist device for PC gamers.
Honestly, and I say that as a 98% Deck player (according to last year Steam Recap), it is starting to lack horsepower.
I really hope the Deck 2 will allow for external GPUs when docked, because E33 really did put it on his knees 😅.
Even at "optimized" settings (which you cannot change on the Deck), I was at 20-30 FPS unless I enabled XeSS. And even then it looked like shit 😅.
That depends a lot on what you’re playing and what your expectations are. I use my Ally to play older games and indies and I feel like it’s great for that. AAA experiences I play on my Xbox Series X.
I have a friend who’s had every handheld and he says they all suck, but he’s expecting to play stuff like COD at high settings and 60fps. That’s just not realistic.
But again I’m coming from growing up with gameboys and Nintendo DS so I don’t have the expectations that someone who grew up in the HD generation might have.
I'm a gameboy era dude, I don't have that high expectations from a portable console.
To this day I managed to play to most AAA game I throwed at the Deck at an OK quality (low to medium) with good fps (40-45 fps).
But E33 just didn't want to, and some area looked a lot different than on my 5 year old computer.
The manor, as an example, looks washed out and overexposed, almost white and grey, while on the computer it looked oldish, but acceptable. And I was on low settings on the computer 😅. So either it is currently bugged, or there is an hidden "very low" setting specially made for the Deck.
I don't know where your preferences lie, but by the numbers, far more games are coming in under the Steam Deck specifications in terms of system requirements than there are games that are stretching them or exceeding them. Very few companies can afford to make a game that runs poorly on it. If we look at the top 12 highest-reviewing games on OpenCritic for 2025 so far, I think only 1 of them (Monster Hunter Wilds) doesn't meet the spec, and at least 3 or 4 of them are 2D with a retro aesthetic. All that to say, I think the horsepower ought to be enough for most people for a very long time, barring a minimal number of games.
I totally agree.
As for E33... Well, I'll probably be able to play to it on the future Deck 2, with better graphics. An enhanced edition without needing an update 😆
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