Phil Spencer has discussed what he’d like to see in a potential Xbox handheld

Microsoft’s head of gaming has discussed what he’d like to see in a potential Xbox handheld.

In an interview with Polygon, Phil Spencer spoke about how he’d like to improve the experience of playing Xbox games on handheld gaming devices, be they existing ones like Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go and Steam Deck, or potentially a first-party system.

He said the Xbox hardware team is considering “different hardware form factors and things that [they] could go do”. “What should we build that will find new players?” he added. “That will allow people to play at times when they couldn’t go play [in the past]?”

“I like the fact that Valve, Lenovo, and Asus went out and innovated in a new form factor,” Spencer said. “And I will say that when I’m playing on those devices, it almost feels more like a console than a PC — nine times out of 10.

“The things that usually frustrate me are more Windows-based than device-based. Which is an area I feel some ownership of. Like, I want to be able to log in with a controller. I’ve got my list of things we should go do.”

Regardless of whether Xbox were to launch its own handheld, Spencer said he wanted other handheld systems to “feel like an Xbox”.

“Forget about the brand. More like: Are all of my games there? Do all my games show up with the save [files] that I want?”

He added: “I want to be able to boot into the Xbox app in a full screen, but in a compact mode. And all of my social [experience] is there. Like I want it to feel like the dash of my Xbox when I turn on the television. [Except I want it] on those devices.”

During a business update in February, Xbox teased plans to reveal new hardware later this year.

“There’s some exciting stuff coming out in hardware that we’re going to share this holiday, and we’re also invested in the next generation roadmap,” said Xbox president Sarah Bond.

“And what we’re really focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation”.