Microsoft plunges into portable games wars with the Asus Rog Ally

Back in March, we describes six features that we wanted to see On what was just a Xbox brand Xbox brand portable game device. Today, Microsoft Announcement of the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally hardware line It looks like it responds almost to all of our wishes for Microsoft’s greatest foray into portable games to date.

Ally Xbox Ally devices powered by Windows-11 promise access to “All the games available on Windows”, including “Xbox Games, Game Pass, Battle.net and other leading PC stores (Read: Steam, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect, etc.).” But instead of having to install and start these games via the Windows Stock interface, as you often do on pocket computers as The original ROG ally lineAll these games will be available via what Microsoft calls an “aggregated game library”.

Asus and Microsoft underline how this integrated experience can be used with games on several different Windows launchers, promising “access to games that you cannot get elsewhere”. This could be considered a subtle excavation in steam steam devices like the steam bridge, which may have important problems with certain titles It does not play well with Steam and / or Linux for one reason or another. Microsoft also highlights how support apps like Discord, Twitch and downloadable game mods will also be directly available via the Windows skeleton of the Xbox Ally.

And while the Ally Xbox devices run Windows 11, they will start that Microsoft calls “Xbox Pocket Computer Experience”, a complete tailor-made interface that masks the Nity-Grunty from the Windows desktop by default. This interface focused on the game “will minimize the substantive activity and will carry out non-essential tasks”, which means “more (and) higher fractures” for the games themselves, says Microsoft. An Xbox button in the shape of a rhombus located near the left stick will also launch a superposition of Xbox game bar with quick access to functions such as parameters, performance measurements and rapid switching between titles. Microsoft also says that it works on A “deck verified” style program To identify Windows titles which “were optimized for pocket computers”.