ROG Xbox Ally X
Xbox is making a handheld console! This is news to absolutely nobody, but at least it’s official now. Microsoft announced the ROG Xbox Ally and its older, more powerful sister the ROG Xbox Ally X at Summer Game Fest this past weekend, and was met with… Nothing, really. Everyone was still talking about that guy’s silly hat.
But I’m interested. Not sign-me-up-for-preorders-immediately interested, but perk-my-ears-up-like-a-dog-that’s-just-heard-a-squirrel interested. You have my attention, Microsoft. Make the most of it.
I’m a handheld gamer at heart. The first decade of my gaming career was spent solely on handhelds – other than the occasional PlayStation 2 outing at a friend’s house. I moved from Game Boy Advance to every flavour of Nintendo DS, flirted with a PSP, before the allure of Pokemon pulled me back to the Nintendo side of town. I played my first Call of Duty with a stylus. My first console wasn’t even really a console, it was a beautiful, glorified motion detector that we just played Wii Sports on at Christmas.
That changed when I got an Xbox 360, and soon enough I was staying up until the early hours playing Halo 3, Left 4 Dead 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with my friends. 14 years later and here I am, gaming PC and Xbox Series X at my fingertips, but completely devoid of a Switch 2. How times change.
Games, Games Everywhere
However, that affectation for handhelds has remained. I yearn for Mario Kart World. I love playing the latest indie RPG on my Steam Deck. I’ve smiled more at my Playdate in the last week than I have at an Apex Legends ranked match for months. What I’m saying is, I love a little handheld. And Xbox has a unique opportunity to create the perfect device.
Another thing you should know about me is I own a lot of games in a lot of different places. I’ve got an extensive Steam library, a full Epic account, access to the fruits of Xbox Game Pass, plus a bunch of Nintendo Switch games and physical Xbox releases. I think that’s it, for modern hardware at least. But there’s only one place I can play all of these games: on my PC, at my desk, in my office.
There are a handful of reasons I don’t want to do that all the time. While playing with my nose to the monitor is great for first-person shooters, it’s not how I want to experience Blue Prince or To a T. For those games, I want to be sat on the sofa, nice and comfy. My wife can sit next to me. We can have a nice conversation while I play.
It’s also nice to have some separation between work and play. I already spend ten hours a day sitting at my desk, writing these very words you’re reading. To spend my evenings doing the same? It feels like I never log off.
That’s why I’ve got the Xbox. A plug-and-play console that shares a Game Pass account with my PC. I can fire up my Xbox games upstairs in the office or downstairs in the relative comfort of my living room. That comes with its own problems, though. Sometimes my wife wants to watch the telly, and it’s only fair we compromise. If we’re not watching something together, that’s when I’ll crack out the Steam Deck or play Balatro on my phone.
But my Steam Deck hasn’t got all my games on it. I can’t access Game Pass. I tried the workarounds for the Epic Games Store and even managed to play a little Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, but it was volatile and ultimately futile. As for launching Game Pass titles in the Steam Deck’s browser? The workarounds are too convoluted, so my Deck remains a Steam machine.
The ROG Xbox Ally Is Perfect For Me, Specifically
Xbox could iterate on that. It’s a no-brainer that Game Pass will work on the console, whether by streaming or its internal hardware (although, having used the standard ROG Ally, I suggest it’ll be powerful enough to run most games natively). According to reporter Stephen Totilo, who went hands-on with the console, Steam was on there, too. And as a Windows machine, I expect to see Battle.net, GoG, Ubisoft Connect, and the Epic Games Store readily available.
“Because these handhelds run Windows, you have access to all the games you can play on Windows PCs,” a rep told Totilo.
Finally, I will have access to all of my games in one place. Modern gaming is so disparate, split between so many storefronts, that it’s rare to ever have access to all your games on the same device. While some people enjoy the gaming tapas to keep things fresh, I’d just like to play the games I paid for wherever I want to. Maybe I’m unfortunate in the fact that the one device that can play all those games is situated in the one place I don’t want to sit for any longer than I already do. Maybe you think I should tough it out in my office – it’s a first-world problem, I know. But that’s not the point. I paid for these games. If I want to play them on the couch, then that’s my prerogative.
A handheld device that offers me all the games I’ve bought is perfect for me, specifically. You may have some elaborate setup so you can access the files from your computer on your big telly. But I don’t. You may not have a beautiful wife who likes to watch programs on the aforementioned big telly. But I do. And that’s why I need a handheld console that allows me to access every game I’ve ever bought. So I can scroll through them all and stagnate in a pool of my own indecision until it’s time to go to bed.
