Phil Spencer has tried all the new PC gaming handhelds: the Asus ROG Ally, the Lenovo Legion Go and the Steam Deck. He is impressed. But he can’t shake one question. How would he make them more Xbox?
“I want my Lenovo Legion Go to feel like an Xbox,” Spencer told Polygon in an interview during the annual Game Developers Conference. “I took (the Legion Go) to GDC. I’m on a plane and I have a list of everything that doesn’t make it feel like an Xbox. Forget the brand. More like: Are All My Games There? Will all my games show up with the save files I want? I’ll tell you one (game) that isn’t working right now (it’s driving me crazy). Fallout 76. There is no cross save.
“I want to be able to launch the Xbox app in full screen, but in a compact mode. And all my social (experience) is there. Like I want it to feel like my Xbox dashboard when I turn on the TV. (Except I want it) on those devices.”
According to Spencer, the Xbox hardware team, led by Roanne Sones, is considering “different hardware form factors and things (they) could do” as it plans the future of Xbox hardware. “What should we build that will find new players?” Spencer said. “That makes it possible for people to play at times when they couldn’t play (in the past)?”
In our wide-ranging interview, Spencer described two approaches to making Xbox available on handhelds: the hardware versus the software approach. As he said, he has strong feelings about what a handheld Xbox device should feel like. But he also recognizes – having learned from the console world – that players can choose brands other than Xbox. For those players, Spencer wants to improve handheld gaming on the Xbox software experience too, especially for those with Windows devices like the Legion Go and the Ally.
Photo: Chris Plante/Polygon
“I like that Valve, Lenovo and Asus have gone out and innovated in a new form factor. And I have to say, when I play on those devices, it almost feels more like a console than a PC – nine times out of ten. The things that usually frustrate me are more Windows-based than device-based. That is an area in which I feel some ownership. For example, I want to be able to log in with a controller. I have a list of things we need to do.”
Spencer has spent his tenure at Microsoft pushing Xbox to be both a console experience and a software experience that follows players wherever they enjoy games. That philosophy extends to his vision for handheld gaming.
“From a game maker’s perspective,” Spencer said, “I can then build one version of my game that includes more hardware and reaches more customers. And I would say for players it reduces friction. For example, if I want to play my console games on the go with a handheld, I don’t want to be able to buy just one brand of handheld. Right? (…) I want everything we do in hardware to be great. But if someone chooses to play (somewhere else) today, I don’t want them to feel like less of an Xbox (player).”
Over the past seven years, we’ve seen Xbox’s development team get creative with its software, move games to new platforms, build the Game Pass subscription service, and make games playable on smartphones via streaming. As we wrapped up our conversation, Spencer didn’t want to immediately announce an official Xbox handheld, but he did say that he sees a similar level of creativity for hardware as Xbox does for software.
“I think it’s important,” Spencer said. “You and I, we’ve been here for a few days. Look at the real turning points in our industry, like the Wii. It was hardware innovation coupled with great software innovation.”