During CES 2025, Microsoft’s VP of “Next Generation,” Jason Ronald sat down for a roundtable discussion regarding gaming handhelds. During the conversation, Ronald touched on Microsoft’s future gaming handheld hardware.
As first reported on by The Verge, Ronald was joined by SteamOS designer Pierre-Loup Griffais as well as AMD chief gaming architect Frank Azor. The event, aptly named “The Future of Gaming Handhelds,” was primarily used to talk about Lenovo’s new Legion Go S handheld. However, Ronald took the moment to hint that Microsoft plans to build a holistic Xbox experience on its handheld.
“We’ve been really innovating for a long time in the console space, and as we partner across the industry it’s really about how do we bring those innovations that we’ve incubated and developed in the console space and bring them to PC and bring them to the handheld gaming space,” Ronald explained.
Last year, Xbox head Phil Spencer began outright discussing his fascination with gaming handhelds. “I want my Lenovo Legion Go to feel like an Xbox,” Spencer said at the time. Later, Spencer spoke with Bloomberg in November to confirm Microsoft is indeed developing its own handheld under the Xbox brand. “We definitely want to be in the market, and when we can find teams and technology and capability that adds to what we’re trying to do in gaming in Microsoft, absolutely we will keep our heads up,” Spencer noted.
After the roundtable discussion, Ronald provided some follow-up comments to The Verge. “I would say it’s bringing the best of Xbox and Windows together because we have spent the last 20 years building a world-class operating system, but it’s really locked to the console,” he said.
“What we’re doing is we’re really focused on how do we bring those experiences for both players and developers to the broader Windows ecosystem.”
The goal that Microsoft has, according to Ronald, is to create an experience that puts Xbox at the centre and not the Windows desktop experience. Leveraging Windows 11 first is commonly the case, especially when using the ROG Ally and ROG Ally X from Asus. The alternative is a handheld that centres around the use of Valve’s SteamOS. “We’re focused on really simplifying that and making it much more like a console experience,” Ronals says. “Our goal is to put the player and their library at the center of the experience and not all the [Windows] work that you have to do today.”
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