Microsoft has reportedly “sidelined” the development of its long-teased first-party handheld gaming device as it focuses its attention on third-party portable opportunities, including ASUS’ Project Kennan, which is supposedly still due this year.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer first discussed an Xbox handheld back in 2017, when he revealed Microsoft had “roughly designed” one in the past, and it’s a subject he’s repeatedly returned to in recent years, fuelling speculation the project had been revived. Then, this March, Windows Central reported Microsoft had settled on a multi-pronged handheld strategy, and would be teaming up with a third-party to release an Xbox-branded portable gaming PC this year under the codename Kennan while it worked on its own internally developed device to release alongside an Xbox Series X/S successor in 2027.
Now, though, Windows Central claims Microsoft has had a bit of a strategic rethink, and development of its own handheld device has been “sidelined”. According to the publication’s source, the company has internally announced it’ll instead “prioritise its teams to improve Windows 11 gaming performance, specifically for devices like the ASUS partner device Project Kennan” (NB. the site originally reported this under the name “Keenan” back in March, but has since updated its original story). It doesn’t sound like Microsoft is completely abandoning its own handheld plans, however; Windows Central says the company “still has big ambitions and is investing heavily to deliver a native Xbox handheld”, but third-party devices and Windows 11 improvements will be where it focuses its resources for now.
As for Project Kennan specifically, the website claims it’s “essentially finished” on the hardware side, but that there’s currently a “significantly boosted effort” between Microsoft’s Xbox and Windows teams to “improve the experience on the software side”. The plan, however, is that the Xbox-branded ASUS device will still launch “later this year”.
Microsoft’s decision to refocus on providing adequate infrastructure for Windows 11-powered third-party devices is perhaps not entirely surprising given increasing competition elsewhere; back in January, Valve announced it’s been working to bring SteamOS, which powers Steam Deck, to third-party handheld gaming, and the operating system is now available on a variety of devices, including recently released official partner machine, the Lenovo Legion Go S.
Beyond its handheld plans, Microsoft continues to developed its Xbox Series X/S successor, which Xbox president Sarah Bond previously claimed would deliver “the largest technical leap that you will have ever seen in a hardware generation.” According to Windows Central, there are currently “three prototype devices in development for Microsoft’s Gen-10 effort”, and the company is also said to be working on “next-gen Xbox cloud systems” to bring latency more in line with NVIDIA’s GeForce Now service.
As for games, we’ll know more about Xbox’s future slate once this year’s Xbox Games Showcase airs on Sunday, 8th June at 6pm UK time. Eurogamer will, of course, have news from that and more as the Summer Game Fest season gets underway next week.