Xbox's handheld 'Pembrooke' has been sidelined (for now), as Microsoft doubles down on Windows 11 PC gaming handheld optimization

That's because Microsoft is a gigantic megacorporation whose actual primary products have nothing to do with gaming

Gaming has always been like a hobby business for them, the real moneymakers laugh at their gaming division internally

The problem now is the big boys at MS are taking notice after they spent $100 billion to do multiple gigantic acquisitions recently, there is now pressure to actually deliver financial results after all this profligacy
Oh yeah, I am aware of that, and that's the issue, MS is run like a multinational enterprise, not a creative business. Both types of businesses are ultimately in it to make money, but how they make money is very different. Microsoft keeps trying to sell creative software the same way that it sells enterprise software, that works about as well as if Nintendo tried to approach the productivity software market the same way they do the games market.

A disaster, in other words.
 
The handheld fell into such an odd category with the Xbox branded Asus handheld coming

I think a lot were asking where is the need for this true Xbox handheld?

Kind of goes along with what K KeplerL2 was saying about Microsoft having no real strategy and just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. Guess this one didn't stick.

And Little Chicken Little Chicken called K KeplerL2 a liar over that.

Jimmy Fallon Omg GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
 
Maybe, instead of two console hardware profiles, they could have had a 1 console profile, and 1 handheld profile. Like, from the beginning.

They keep putting themselves against a wall and into double binds.

How would that have helped? Devs aren't going to make games against a hardware profile that doesn't exist, and wouldn't exist for a while.

Microsoft.......just stay out of hardware. You suck at this

Their hardware is pretty good, most of the time.
Unless there's a different OP that I'm not seeing, there's no reports of any cancellations
 
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Definitely, but at least to me, the Asus one was the one that felt out of place :messenger_grinning_sweat:

This I do agree with. If you're going to make a handheld you should make the one that plays all of a users library. They are sticking with the one that only plays some of a users library now.
 
And Valve has already accomplished what Phil has been talking about for years with a handheld PC that has a good UI
Yeah, and Valve's market cap is estimated to be even lower than Nintendo's if I am not wrong, and the fuckers single handedly made Linux happen where everyone else failed

Microsoft just has no focus

Yeah it does too only reason I picked the official Xbox handheld out of place is its coming after the Asus product that almost certainly Xbox will promote then a year later say hey guys now lets push this handheld
Sounds about right :ROFLMAO:
 
True indeed. It literally makes NO sense.
Yeah it does too only reason I picked the official Xbox handheld out of place is its coming after the Asus product that almost certainly Xbox will promote then a year later say hey guys now lets push this handheld

If the reports are correct:
The Asus product is supposed to be the first device featuring the improved Windows interface for handheld PCs, to better hedge against SteamOS. It's not going to be marketed as something capable of playing your Xbox library and would not have BC as a selling point. It'd probably end up as something to start the software rollout on other PC handhelds.

That's not what the handheld Xbox that'd emulate much of the Xbox library is supposed to be.

Entirely different product categories.
 
I think we are at the "letting them down gently" phase of all this.

It's just a smokescreen, trying to disguise as much as possible the failure of the entire Xbox strategy and avoid taking the blame for the failure (Nadella and Phill, the culprits)
 
Yep really good build quality they are great. My company switched to them and at first I was like WTF but now I'm in love with it.

Anecdotal I know, but my wife's went through 3 of them in a year before her company made the switch and went with thinkpads. She's had no issues since.
 
I want a handheld Windows interface more than I want a handheld Xbox so I'm ok with the priorities here.

Same here. You'd have thought people would be happy. The Dave2D video and other anecdotal stories about SteamOS performance on the Legion Go S really resonated here
 
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I am so glad I was able to get 437 bucks for my series x two weeks ago at GameStop. It is painfully obvious they are bowing out of hardware.

I feel bad for the people who continue to invest in this ecosystem.
 
If the reports are correct:
The Asus product is supposed to be the first device featuring the improved Windows interface for handheld PCs, to better hedge against SteamOS. It's not going to be marketed as something capable of playing your Xbox library and would not have BC as a selling point. It'd probably end up as something to start the software rollout on other PC handhelds.

That's not what the handheld Xbox that'd emulate much of the Xbox library is supposed to be.

Entirely different product categories.

This is exactly why it never made sense to me for Microsoft to do both of these.
 
Same here. You'd have thought people would be happy. The Dave2D video and other anecdotal stories about SteamOS performance on the Legion Go S really resonated here

You've already jumped ship to PC, as has ReBurn ReBurn .

This doesn't do anything for the people who are still on Xbox consoles or people who are generally still console gamers and plan to remain so.
 
Yep really good build quality they are great. My company switched to them and at first I was like WTF but now I'm in love with it.
Tbh Surface is excellent. If it wasn't stuck running Windows (which is garbage) it would be a very easy recommendation for a lot of casual users.

Microsoft's issue, hilariously enough, is the fucking software.

Eh...incredibly overpriced and underpowered, imo. I've always found better options with other brands. But....off topic.
 
Anecdotal I know, but my wife's went through 3 of them in a year before her company made the switch and went with thinkpads. She's had no issues since.

Wow that's crazy. I haven't checked with the other techs in my area (we are spread out all over the city) but I haven't heard any complaints. We were using Dells before which were fine don't get me wrong. Recently though we ordered about 80 Dell's for a company and over half of them had to have the MOBO replaced because the USB-C docking port was breaking. Literally just happened again to another user here and she decided to just wait until we get the new dell laptops which we are getting in now.

With that said Dell's support is the best I've ever worked with so I continue to recommended them to everyone.
 
Honestly, the handheld was the only one of their upcoming hardware projects that seemed to make sense to me. They obviously have proven they cannot go head to head with PlayStation in a direct match up, because that never works for them. Offering a high end native Xbox portable, with all the ecosystem hooks, would be a great way to differentiate their hardware and have it be appealing to people, even with all Xbox games coming to PlayStation.

Of course, Xbox isn't in the habit of making good decisions, so it's not surprising this got canceled.
honestly this was the only possible upcoming Xbox device that interested me, I'm pretty much divested from the Xbox ecosystem at this point but the handheld would have been a great way to play my BC library 🤷🏼‍♂️
 
I am so glad I was able to get 437 bucks for my series x two weeks ago at GameStop. It is painfully obvious they are bowing out of hardware.

I feel bad for the people who continue to invest in this ecosystem.
Bold. I ain't getting rid of anything until I see that their emulators on PC can let me play all the games I've purchased.
 
Yeah its ironic that Phil and Ybarra celebrated Jim's promotion at Playstation while they slowly killed their own brand
We need a comedy film about this gen tbh.

Jim was kind of retarded when it comes to greenlighting games, but the man is a retail legend, the platform business grew massively under him and somehow managed to get even sharper when it comes to marketing retail presence etc.
 
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