Microsoft Reportedly Working on Handheld Set to Launch Later This Year

There's been plenty of speculation on when Microsoft was going to enter the handheld gaming fray. It appears that the Xbox maker has something in the works that may be further along than expected. 

Microsoft is working with an unknown manufacturer to make its own Xbox-branded gaming handheld, according to a report from Windows Central on Monday. The device, reportedly codenamed Keenan, will be more PC-focused, run on Windows and center on Microsoft's own digital platforms such as the Microsoft Store and PC Game Pass. This handheld, however, is not necessarily a first-party Xbox handheld but more of a partnership with the unknown PC gaming company to produce a device that will have the Xbox brand and is expected to come out later in 2025. 

The report also states that the next Xbox has been given the green light. Microsoft will reportedly release a premium successor to the Xbox Series X in 2027. 

Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has previously discussed creating a gaming handheld, and Jason Ronald, Microsoft's vice president of Xbox Gaming Devices & Ecosystem, told The Verge in January that the Windows handheld gaming device experience would change later this year. 

While the Nintendo Switch formalized mobile gaming for a new era of handhelds with large central screens, the arrival of Valve's Steam Deck in 2022 pushed that product category into a new era as a portable device that could run PC games. Other competitors have launched since, but Valve's handheld remains the king of its niche.

A handful of gaming devices using Windows have come out in recent years such as the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go, but the implementation of that operating system has made those devices less enjoyable to use than the Steam Deck, which runs its own Steam OS for gaming. Having Microsoft involved in the development of the handheld device could finally do the trick of making a Windows handheld that can compete with the Steam Deck, which dominates the handheld PC gaming space.

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