Polygon: If the Xbox Ally is the future of Xbox, Microsoft is in Trouble.

memoryman3

memoryman3

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www.polygon.com

If the Xbox Ally is the future of Xbox, Microsoft is in trouble

The new handheld makes a compelling case for Microsoft’s platform-agnostic vision, but Windows still sucks for gaming
www.polygon.com www.polygon.com

As gaming hardware, the Xbox Ally X is fine, although it under-delivers for its exorbitant price point. As a vision for platform-agnostic gaming, it's pretty exciting, with caveats. As the new standard-bearer for Windows gaming, it's not quite a disaster, but it's not great at all.
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Can't say I am surprised by this review. I was always a supporter of the walled garden, subsidised consoles from Xbox and the Xbox Series X/S was genuinely the firm's best console to date with some of the best third party support to date. Will MS truly throw this away for a sluggish Windows interface and spotty compatibility?

The review also makes some scathing comparisons between the Ally UX and the Switch 2 UX, noting that Nintendo's handheld was a vastly better experience all-around.

Moving back and forth between the Xbox Ally and my Switch 2 was especially damning; the Nintendo console was vastly more responsive and easy to use, with a much more logically organized (if plain) interface, and needless to say, it never hung or crashed, which is not a claim I can make for the Xbox Ally. On Nintendo's console, everything has been arranged to minimize the distance between you and the game, or game-related function. It should be stressed that this level of performance is a baseline expectation of any mass-market console, never mind a $1,000 one.
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coffee-butcher-the-boys.gif
 
"Windows sucks for gaming" is such a dumb statement. Windows is the premier gaming platform in the PC space, no matter how hard Linux users want you to think otherwise. This review boils down to "well it's not a steam deck and I wanted a steam deck".
 
joeygreco1985 said:
"Windows sucks for gaming" is such a dumb statement. Windows is the premier gaming platform in the PC space, no matter how hard Linux users want you to think otherwise. This review boils down to "well it's not a steam deck and I wanted a steam deck".
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Oli is not just making comparisons to Steam Deck, he's weighing up Windows vs the Switch 2. Nintendo actually comes out on top, and they're considered a backwards company in many ways.
 
memoryman3 said:
The review also makes some scathing comparisons between the Ally UX and the Switch 2 UX, noting that Nintendo's handheld was a vastly better experience all-around.
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A PC, even one as mature and streamlined as the Steam Deck will never have the frictionless gaming experience of consoles. Weird restarts, inability to restore gaming session on wakeup, unexpected stuttering are all pack of the package. I do not know why the reviewer expected the Ally to not behave like a PC and compared it to the Switch. This is the reason why I do not recommend the Steam Deck to family or friends who are not tech savvy (I hate being an unpaid tech support guy).
 
This thing will struggle to sell a million units in its lifetime.

They would have been better off making a streaming device like Portal for £200. It wouldn't sell half as many as Portal, but it would still be a better venture than a Windows handheld. Steam Deck dominates PC handhelds, and even that has only sold a few million so far.
 
Michael Jordan Lol GIF

lol polygon, the Xbox Ally ain't even the future of the Xbox Ally, much less Microsoft.

It's just some filler Asus hardware that ain't nobody gonna buy in any real numbers. I'm sorry but it's true. It will do worse than steamdeck. It will be so obscure that it not be a fun experience for those who do get it. It is an experiment to sell a few of these things it is not a relevant gaming device in the console or PC market. I hope whoever buys it enjoys it but this is not something I could recommend to buy.
 
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joeygreco1985 said:
"Windows sucks for gaming" is such a dumb statement. Windows is the premier gaming platform in the PC space, no matter how hard Linux users want you to think otherwise. This review boils down to "well it's not a steam deck and I wanted a steam deck".
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Look, I've been on Windows since the 90s like all the rest of us old fucks, but do you honestly think if something like Steam OS was a viable easy alternative that was fully compatible with everything that most of us wouldn't have already abandoned Windows? The only reason Windows is the premier gaming platform is because it's the only viable platform for the average user and the default that comes with almost every PC sold.
 
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Zacfoldor said:
Michael Jordan Lol GIF

Bro the Xbox Ally ain't even the future of the Xbox Ally, much less Microsoft.

It's just some filler offbrand Asus hardware that ain't nobody gonna buy in any real numbers. I'm sorry but it's true. It will do worse than steamdeck. It will be so obscure that it not be a fun experience for those who do get it. It is an experiment to sell a few of these things it is not a relevant gaming device in the console or PC market. I hope whoever buys it enjoys it but this is not something I could recommend to buy.
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Ehm...the future of xbox is going to be something similar to this. A console-pc running some version of windows.
 
opinions are opinions.

if i was comparing a handheld pc to switch 2 then nintendo wouldnt get a look in as they dont produce a single thing i have any interest in.
 
joeygreco1985 said:
"Windows sucks for gaming" is such a dumb statement. Windows is the premier gaming platform in the PC space, no matter how hard Linux users want you to think otherwise. This review boils down to "well it's not a steam deck and I wanted a steam deck".
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Doesn't mean that windows doesn't suck for gaming. Windows is absolute ass with, up until very very recently, zero viable alternatives.
 
The author is comparing a portable PC with a portable console. It's obvious that no portable PC will ever behave like a Switch, PSP, etc.

Regarding Microsoft, they're screwed either way, but giving up on traditional consoles will definitely screw them even more.
 
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Jaybe said:
No suspend and resume is a complete joke for a gaming device in 2025
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WTF, I have a Steam Deck and it seems to suspend/resume decently, not as reliable or consitent as the Switch or PS5. Do none of the Windows handheld have suspend/resume functionality? That is a serious dealbreaker, its been more than a decade since the PS4 and XBO, I cannot go back to no suspend/resume.
 
Gamer_By_Proxy said:
It should be compared with the Steam Deck, not Switch 2 imo. But it would get trounced even more compared to SteamOS on handhelds.
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It should absolutely be compared with Switch 2, Xbox OS, and PS5 if Xbox wants Windows to be the #1 platform for all gaming. Based on this review it's not quite there yet and the closed ecosystems are just better gaming devices.
 
joeygreco1985 said:
"Windows sucks for gaming" is such a dumb statement. Windows is the premier gaming platform in the PC space, no matter how hard Linux users want you to think otherwise. This review boils down to "well it's not a steam deck and I wanted a steam deck".
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But it's true. Windows as an OS sucks.
It has a ton of bloatware and spyware. Constant updates that break things. Bugs and issues go unsolved for years. Terrible decisions that make the UI worse and worse.
The only reason why we use Windows is because most software, including games, are made for it. And only for it.

And there is a catch22 with other operating systems, such as Linux, ChromeOs and MacOS. Where studios don't publish games for it, because few people use it. And few people use it, because most studios don't publish for it.
But if all things were equal, if Linux, MacOS, ChromeOS, had the same applications and games, then most people would move away from Windows. Simply because it's a pile of shit.
Or at least, Microsoft would put some actual effort into making it a lot better.
 
memoryman3 said:
It should absolutely be compared with Switch 2, Xbox OS, and PS5 if Xbox wants Windows to be the #1 platform for all gaming. Based on this review it's not quite there yet and the closed ecosystems are just better gaming devices.
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or you can just install SteamOS on this and it's immediately a much better experience.
 
joeygreco1985 said:
"Windows sucks for gaming" is such a dumb statement. Windows is the premier gaming platform in the PC space, no matter how hard Linux users want you to think otherwise. This review boils down to "well it's not a steam deck and I wanted a steam deck".
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It's like owning a mall when you're only interested in one store, and you can't just have the store, you need to own the whole mall. And they keep forcing the creation of new stores you don't want (Copilot to name a recent one).
 
The review is pretty harsh, but I think it's fair. I think the "Xbox full screen experience" has a lot of potential, but you don't review potential. You review what's there. And what's there sounds like an unfinished, buggy, feature starved, beta experience.
 
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joeygreco1985 said:
"Windows sucks for gaming" is such a dumb statement. Windows is the premier gaming platform in the PC space, no matter how hard Linux users want you to think otherwise. This review boils down to "well it's not a steam deck and I wanted a steam deck".
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Unfortunately that is the mindset from most pc gamers. "Well it's not steam so I'm not interested"
If MS insists on going down the path of focusing on windows based platforms, users will opt to use it with steam as their store front and MS is never going to reach the profit margins they need to keep this whole thing going. They get nothing from Steam purchases that aren't their own games and even then, Valve takes its cut.
 
Darkness_Arises said:
WTF, I have a Steam Deck and it seems to suspend/resume decently, not as reliable or consitent as the Switch or PS5. Do none of the Windows handheld have suspend/resume functionality? That is a serious dealbreaker, its been more than a decade since the PS4 and XBO, I cannot go back to no suspend/resume.
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Especially for a handheld console. Nintendo DS already had the suspend/resume thing, predating PS4 and Xbox One.
 
Darkness_Arises said:
WTF, I have a Steam Deck and it seems to suspend/resume decently, not as reliable or consitent as the Switch or PS5. Do none of the Windows handheld have suspend/resume functionality? That is a serious dealbreaker, its been more than a decade since the PS4 and XBO, I cannot go back to no suspend/resume.
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That's right. None of the Windows handhelds have suspend and resume for games. It's a big miss. We've gotten so used to the feature, since Swtich/XO/PS4. Steam Deck does almost perfect job at it from my use. I've only had an occasional hitch where voice dialog was like 2x in Hades.
 
analog_future said:
The review is pretty harsh, but I think it's fair. I think the "Xbox full screen experience" has a lot of potential, but you don't review potential. You review what's there. And what's there sounds like an unfinished, buggy, feature starved, beta experience.
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That's pretty much what it looked like. I assumed it's a first pass and will keep getting updated. It's not even rolled out to other devices yet.
 
joeygreco1985 said:
"Windows sucks for gaming" is such a dumb statement. Windows is the premier gaming platform in the PC space, no matter how hard Linux users want you to think otherwise. This review boils down to "well it's not a steam deck and I wanted a steam deck".
Click to expand...
Being primier doesn't mean good, just means a better OS hasn't come out and that's debatable.

An OS made for gaming will beat out an ancient jack of all trades.
 
Your "Invention of the Year" award winner, ladies and gentlemen.

Damnit. I wanted this to be good, but I had a feeling that buyers would be Beta Testers for this new Windows experience.
 
Literally an IQ test if you're willing to buy this thing at the ridiculous price it is, barely 4/5 fps more than an Ally X and 5/6 more than a Z1 Extreme Ally, at 3 times the price
 
joeygreco1985 said:
"Windows sucks for gaming" is such a dumb statement. Windows is the premier gaming platform in the PC space, no matter how hard Linux users want you to think otherwise. This review boils down to "well it's not a steam deck and I wanted a steam deck".
Click to expand...

Windows sucks for gaming in the context of handhelds is how I read that, but he could have been clearer.
 
Linus and Dave2D are also pretty lukewarm on this. Disappointing to hear about the UI. It doesn't seem to be the game changer I thought it would be.



 
Salz01 said:
All the doom and gloom Xbox anrticles are getting tiresome. It's all speculation and feeding the drama.
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Not to be rude, but this is literally a review of the new Xbox. Not speculation, not drama. You can disagree with the review but personally the author seems to have done a good job of conveying the pros and cons of the device
 
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