Everything is an Xbox except the Xbox

The jury is out on the price of the new “Xbox” ROG Ally handheld has landed with a $999 price tag, making it one of the most expensive devices ever to carry the Xbox name. Except—well, it’s not really an Xbox. It’s a Windows 11 gaming PC in handheld form, built by Asus and sold under the Xbox brand. 

That makes it the latest chapter in Microsoft’s “everything is an Xbox” philosophy. PCs are Xboxes. Phones were Xboxes for about five minutes. Game Pass is definitely an Xbox. And now, a thousand-dollar handheld that runs Steam, Epic, and GOG—but not Xbox console discs—is an Xbox too.

The irony, of course, is that the only thing that isn’t an Xbox anymore is the actual Xbox hardware, which continues to lose ground in sales to PlayStation and Nintendo. Microsoft seems far more interested in making “Xbox” a universal label for gaming than in pushing its own consoles. The Ally is just the most extreme proof of that: an Xbox so dedicated to the idea of not being a console that it only plays PC games.

Those that have successfully preordered the devices will be getting their hands on them on the 16th. We are back in the era of handhelds and the proof of that is these Xboxs keep selling out from the Xbox and Asus stores despite gamers probably already owning a Steam Deck.