This feels like an executive saying “I want to have an Xbox handheld”. Then saying to make it profitable without market research.
I feel like the Xbox brand is not long for this world.
Steamdeck and Ps5 it will remain for me then.
I have had good luck with the Portal since hardwiring the PS5, but the price needs to come down at least $50.
Will stick with my Steam Deck thank you very much.
How a handheld is priced more or equal than a PS5 pro? Which is also pretty expensive for a console.
More compact tech usually increases pricing.
Also the need to have it not break when regularly transported in a backpack etc (think moving parts).
Also it includes a screen and controllers.
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I guess I have to put my foot in my mouth over a comment I made a month or so back. I had said an XBOX handheld would sell out against the Steam Deck simply due to brand recognition.
This was of course before I thought they’d be dumb enough to make a console twice as expensive aimed at the mass market. If this was targeted at the same price as the Deck, they might have had a chance.
I don’t know anyone that would consider one of these now.
Shit I dont know anyone who can afford this. No one in my work or friend group has a Steam Deck or Switch 2. Nearly 20 people all of us of us have ps5, XsX, or switch 1. 6 have a pc that can run the latest games without chugging. Not even the scalper guy at work has gotten a Switch2 to flip.
The market for Steam Deck is already so small, you would have to undercut it in price or overshoot it in specs by such a rediculous margin (either one) to get mass market adoption. Consoles were BORN FROM being cheaper and “punching above its pricetag” compared to modular PCs. This handheld is neither.
$1000 consoles and $100 games…here we come I guess. I’m so tired of fighting this fight. One of the tenants of capitalism is that you, the consumer, should demand more-for-less. It doesn’t matter that you got a good deal already. It is a consumers duty to demand a product for less, or even free. People have grown complacent and lazy with this duty - misinformation and complacency, and a culture that promotes both “fuck you I got mine” and “overpaying is a flex” has allowed prices to rocket under greedflation.
One of the tenants of capitalism is that you, the consumer, should demand more-for-less
Oh dear, that was never a tenet of capitalism. Capitalism has only one tenet: amass as much capital as possible at all costs. Literally anything goes, including and especially capturing and controlling markets by stifling competition.
It’s a natural byproduct though. Assuming a free enough market, you should have several people all supplying the same good. Some will compete on price, some on quality, and some on overall service.
The problems happen when competition evaporates, either from regulations raising the barrier to entry, acquisitions, or resource scarcity. Capitalism assumes people are greedy and pits them against each other to provide better services to everyone. A lack of competition isn’t “capitalism functioning as intended,” but instead the opposite, it means something is preventing capitalism from working as intended.
You appear to be conflating Capitalism with the concept of free markets. They are wholly different and distinct concepts, regardless of what Capitalism’s propagandists would like everyone to believe.
Capitalism, being an economic dogma that worships private ownership and relentless pursuit and hoarding of wealth, actively incentivizes behavior that destroys free markets: trusts, monopolies, oligopolies, regulatory capture, sabotage, patents, union busting, mergers and acquisitions, financialization, and more, gradually eroding any free market until it no longer meaningfully exists.
When most people refer to capitalism, they mean free market or laissez-faire capitalism. Many (most?) of the issues you mentioned require government to step in to occur. For example:
- trusts - government structure to protect wealth
- oligopoly - failure of government to prevent collusion (price fixing and whatnot are expressly anti-competitive)
- regulatory capture - government must be complicit since regulations are typically a government thing
I think government has a place in protecting the free market, but it needs to be restrained so it doesn’t get manipulated into destroying the free market. For example, a regulation could protect consumers, but it could also raise the barrier to entry and prevent competition from correcting the underlying problem.
A lot of the issues stem from corporate welfare, where wealthy people are able to manipulate corporate structures to build their own wealth and protect themselves from liability. I think it’s largely those liability protections that encourage anti-competitive behavior. End the protections and courts can meaningfully punish corporations when they break the law.
This is in line with the other Windows handhelds’ pricing, which are still doing half as well as the Steam Deck despite having to run an interface as awful as desktop Windows.
Would love to give Portal a try, but until it’s 150 that’s not gonna happen.
I’m confused. The Xbox Ally X costs pretty much the same as the normal ROG Ally X. Don’t people in the US realize that prices in the EU usually include tax?
Is the Xbox Ally X a different thing from a ROG Ally X? Is it the same thing as a ROG Xbox Ally X?
Fuck Microsoft for this naming convention convention bullshit.
It’s not the same thing. The ROG Ally X is an AMD Z1 Extreme and the Xbox Ally X is an AMD Z2 Extreme. It’s not clear yet how well the Z2 Extreme performs in comparison to the Z1 Extreme.
The Phawx did some testing with the Legion Go 2 and their Z2 (non-extreme) performs worse than the ROG Ally X. -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVdOkbJ9Npo&pp=ygUVTGVnaW9uIEdvIDIgdGhlIHBoYXd4
My cautious expectation is that it will perform marginally better than the ROG Ally X, maybe be 10-15%, though I’m not touching anything Microsoft at this time in history.
I’d rather spend that kind of money on an escort
That way I’ll only be fucked once instead of being routinely fucked by the subscription fees
Hmm subscription escorts
lol
A Google search preview from the official Barcelona Asus store “Asus by MacMan” has accidentally revealed what many feared: the ROG Xbox Ally X will retail for €899, while the standard model sits at €599.
These European prices translate to eye-watering figures globally, potentially pushing the premium handheld well beyond the $1000 threshold in certain markets.
Now, let’s all calm down. This is based on leaked data.
If I had to guess, Microsoft leaked this themselves so that they could gauge just how much we balked at the price, and then come down to something more reasonable, making the still over-priced unit look like a better deal in the end.
Until we see the actual device for sale at this price, let’s set down the pitchforks for another day.
RIP Xbox.
Did they bother looking at the history of console launches that were above $600?
You know, all those household names like 3DO, Jaguar, and CD-I, that prove how historically there is NOT a big audience for expensive consoles.
Good ol Playstation even learned their lesson with the PS3.
And now in the middle of a global recession, one where people are even turning on Nintendo for price increases - Xbox is releasing their most expensive console ever with no exclusives, and not a single reason to use this new “Xbox” because game pass is available on everything else.
I’m sorry. But whoever is left at Xbox needs to pull their head out of their ass and breath real air.
This move is out of the 90’s with crossbranding that smells of desperation. WHY would you call it so many names? WHY the ROG Xbox Ally? And not the Xbox Ally?
You really just had to slap the corporate partnership with ROG in the name of the product at the front like that? People smell that bullshit ten miles away now, as it basically the equivalent of putting corporate flowers on a devices grave. Like the Verizon Blackberry Storm, or the ATT Nokia NGage.
FFS “XBOX ALLY” is a great name! They could have even called it the “Xbox ALLY by ROG”
Now it’s going to be another “Xbone” situation because Microsoft can’t unincorporated their brain from making terrible decisions.
The ROG Xbox Ally is an overbranded ununique afterthought of a console designed to milk Xbox nostalgia from people that don’t have the budget or desire for an expensive portable PC.
I wish Vegas took odds over the potential failure of this console, because it’s almost certain how much of a failure this thing is going to be at launch.
Just my 2 cents. Haters better tell me how many of these they’re planning to buy at launch to scalp.
Ah, so we have a Switch2 hardware with no exclusive titles for twice the price. No thank you, I‘ll play a game offline by just putting it in and hoping that the game is no copy of a game someone else made.
I’m guessing maybe having the Xbox branding entails some certification fee? Also is the base Z2 supposed to be stronger than the Z1 Extreme? It’ll be rough to compete with older Z1 Extreme handhelds and presumably any of the Z2 family of chips that come with SteamOS
Jesus jumping jehoshaphat, this is absolutely fucking bonkers
For comparison the Windows 11 ROG Ally is $500 (Asus.com)
My guess is that this will be able to play Xbox console games that aren’t on PC like The Darkness. Would explain why we’re seeing other console exclusive titles appear on the Xbox app.(Edit: Nope.avi)My guess is that this will be able to play Xbox console games that aren’t on PC like The Darkness
They’ve already confirmed that no, it’s just running Windows Game Pass.
https://www.purexbox.com/news/2025/06/no-the-rog-xbox-ally-handheld-doesnt-play-native-console-games
What the shit? Are the specs better than the ROG Ally or something…??
From what I’ve read, it will have the new AMD Ryzen Z2 chipset which could lead to better battery life, also… better grips, impulse triggers, and slightly better RAM.
€599 and €899
No thank you. Nope. No chance.
