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.

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.

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

Clearly they don't care about their consoles. This is just an extra option for gamepass, their main selling product. The point of "play anywhere" is "they don't care from where you play".

There is no console wars anymore, just services. And those who still think of fighting this war, they are morons.

800-1200 for a low end "gaming laptop" isn't super out of the realm.

Figuring out (meaningful) specs on the Z2s is... hard but https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/handheld-gaming-pcs/amds-baffling-new-ryzen-z2-apus-for-handheld-gaming-pcs-include-a-premium-ai-model-with-an-npu-and-seemingly-the-ancient-chip-from-valves-steam-deck/ seems to be the best comparison out there and it sounds like it is within the realm of the Steam Deck plus AI Magic NPU. Which is potentially incredibly good in a handheld for upscaling/framegen purposes if you roll that way (I don't care if you do or don't).

And the ROG Ally 2023s seem to be at the 650-900 range. So new chip gen combined with pre-pricing for tariffs and those are "reasonable" if you like the rest of the ROG specs. Personally? I think a 120 Hz 1080p display on a handheld is idiotic but if it is your only device there might be an argument. I forget if those support VRR.

But yeah. Definitely feels like another increasingly common MS fail which is becoming increasingly the case as they devote all of their competency toward enabling genocide (friendly reminder that BDS encourages boycotting of MS)

But with the Switch 2 just launching and being the perfect device that will give you a handy while you play? And the Steam Deck still kind of the best all arounder for closer to half the price than not? Really feels like this is being sent out to die.

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)

How much does a gaming laptop cost again? Because this is that essentially.

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.