Re: No More Windows/Xbox Franken-Handheld?

On Tue, 3 Jun 2025 00:04:48 -0000 (UTC), I wrote:

Feeling the heat from the success of the handheld Steam Deck gaming
PC, Microsoft let some leaks out a few months ago that it was
working on a combined XBox/Windows device that would compete better
in some undefined way.

Well, it looks like it is continuing to work on the idea, albeit not
in the form of an own-brand product, but with the help of a third
party. Specifically, Asus.

Here are two reports
<https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/06/microsoft-dives-into-the-handheld-gaming-pc-wars-with-the-asus-rog-xbox-ally/>
<https://www.theverge.com/news/682011/microsoft-windows-xbox-pc-combination-features-rog-xbox-ally-devices>
on an announcement of an upcoming version of the Asus ROG Ally product
line that will run this Xbox/Windows Franken-OS.

So the device will switch between an “Xbox mode” and a “Windows mode”.
But the “Windows mode” will be cut-down compared to that on a regular
PC:

    The Xbox full-screen experience is very much the compact mode of
    the Xbox app taking full control of the ROG Xbox Ally devices,
    instead of the familiar Windows desktop and taskbar. “When the
    player boots into the full-screen experience there is a whole
    bunch of Windows stuff that doesn’t get loaded,” says Beaumont.
    “We’re not loading the desktop wallpaper, the taskbar, or a bunch
    of processes that are really designed around productivity
    scenarios for Windows.”

But won’t that cause compatibility problems for some apps? Never fear:

    You can still exit this full-screen mode and launch the full
    version of the Windows desktop, but by default it will by hidden
    away.

So is that a device that can run in *three* different modes?? That’s
going to be a fun user experience, isn’t it? And here’s something else
to worry about:

    Microsoft is also creating its own version of Valve’s Steam Deck
    verified program, allowing you to see what games are optimized for
    handhelds like the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X.

But the whole point of a gaming console like the Xbox was that, once a
game was certified for the Xbox, it would run on any Xbox. So now we
have to have a two-tier certification system, with extra verification
for this new product, because not all games are going to run on it??
So it becomes more like the complications of PC gaming, where the
burden is on the customer to ensure they have sufficiently capable
hardware to run each game? And that’s even before you get into actual
Windows-based PC games themselves?

Of course, this is all vapourware. Nothing concrete (and with an
actual price tag) is going to appear for some months yet. This is
going to be fun:

    Valve is also supporting SteamOS on the ROG Ally, so we should be
    able to compare Valve and Microsoft’s handheld operating systems
    on the same hardware soon. We don’t yet know if Microsoft has done
    enough to stop other PC makers from being tempted over to SteamOS
    like Lenovo has, but Microsoft’s efforts are really setting up a
    battle between Windows and Linux for the future of handheld gaming
    PCs.

Instead of worrying about stopping other vendors adopting SteamOS,
perhaps Microsoft should concentrate on offering an attractive
platform for bringing out better Windows-based devices.