Microsoft combines ‘the best of Xbox and Windows’ for handhelds

Xbox chief Phil Spencer has been hinting at an Xbox handheld for months, but what about portable Windows gaming PCs? Jason Ronald, vice president of Microsoft “Next Generation,” explains The edge that we should expect to see the Windows handheld gaming experience change over the course of this calendar year.

Ronald was on a panel tonight at an AMD and Lenovo event titled “The Future of Gaming Handhelds,” which was primarily a release party for Lenovo’s new Legion Go S. But he hinted on stage that Microsoft was planning to bring the Xbox experience to Windows PCs, rather than the other way around – and we expanded on that considerably after we caught up with him later.

“We’ve really been innovating in the console space for a long time, and as partners across the industry, it’s really about how do we bring the innovations that we’ve incubated and developed into the console space and the bring to PC and bring to the portable gaming space,” Ronald said.

After meeting with him after the event, he confirmed that Microsoft is planning to combine the Xbox and Windows experiences – and that we should see changes this year, rather than having to wait for an Xbox handheld which could still be years away .

“I would say it brings together the best of Xbox and Windows, because we’ve spent the last 20 years building a world-class operating system, but it’s really tied to the console,” says Ronald. “What we’re doing is we’re really focusing on how to bring these experiences for gamers and developers to the broader Windows ecosystem. »

Right now, Windows sucks at handhelds, to put it rather bluntly, to the point where a community-made fork of Valve’s SteamOS experience may be a much better way to pick up and play games . Ronald is clearly aware of the problems. “We’re working to really simplify this and make it a much more console-like experience. Our goal is to put the drive and its library at the center of the experience, not all the (Windows) work you need to do today.

Microsoft has created compact modes for Xbox apps on Windows, focused on improving the handheld experience, but that’s a bit like putting lipstick on a pig instead of addressing the core experience. “I think we’ll have a lot more to share later this year,” Ronald teases. “I think it’s going to be a journey and I think you’ll see over time a lot of the investments that you’re already starting to see, but we’ll have a lot more to share later this year.”

How Microsoft goes about this merger of Xbox and Windows will be key, but it doesn’t look like the company will suddenly port a custom Xbox operating system to Windows. Rather, it seems that Microsoft wants to enhance Windows gaming with an Xbox experience on top so that Windows’ pesky desktop, notifications, and legacy are hidden.

“I think ultimately our goal is to make Windows great for gaming on any device,” says Ronald. “The reality is that the Xbox operating system is built on top of Windows. So we’ve built a lot of infrastructure in the console space that we can bring to the PC space and really deliver that premium gaming experience on any device.

Specifically, Microsoft needs to tackle a lot of basics to make Windows more controller-friendly and make that Xbox experience actually drive things instead of the taskbar, Start menu, and other things. “There are just some things in Windows that weren’t designed for if you don’t have a keyboard and mouse, like support for controllers or joypads and that sort of thing,” Ronald admits.

“We’re working on fundamental interaction models to make sure that no matter the details of the operating system, it feels very natively like a gaming-centric device and a gaming-centric experience.”

Ronald says the goal is to put the Xbox experience at the center – “not the Windows desktop you have today.”