Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and… An Xbox handheld? Microsoft says it’s happening, even if it is ‘years away’

The rumours are true: Xbox is following in Nintendo and Valve’s footsteps, as Phil Spencer confirms that a handheld is on the way.

Way back in March of this year, it was reported that Xbox was developing its own handheld, something that’s wholly unsurprising given how successful the Nintendo Switch has been (it’s the third best selling console of all time), with the Steam Deck proving plenty popular too. Xbox head Phil Spencer then added fuel to that fire by saying that he thinks the company should have a handheld, but didn’t outright confirm it. Now, in a new interview with Bloomberg, Spencer has finally confirmed that Xbox is working on something in that vein, you just probably won’t see it for a good while yet.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Spencer said that the “expectation is we would do something” in the world of handhelds. Prototypes are currently being worked on, with Xbox considering how it wants to handle its version of a handheld, with Spencer asking his group to look at the market and make choices based on what it learns. However, Bloomberg did also note that Spencer says an Xbox handheld is still years away, so don’t expect to be playing the latest Game Pass title from the comfort of your own bed any time soon (unless, you know, you own a different handheld which can run Game Pass, which is entirely possible).

The Switch really has changed how companies are looking at handhelds, with Nintendo being the only company to really go for it for a long time now – Sony did have the PSP, which did actually do quite well (it’s estimated to have sold 80-82 million units), but the PS Vita was obviously a failure, so the company stayed out of the market until it released the PS Portal. There’s estimates that that’s sold between 420,000-630,000 units in the past year, which isn’t too bad, but it’s obviously just a cloud streaming device and not a fully fledged handheld.

We’re all still waiting on the Switch 2, too, which will be a good test to see if handheld consoles are here to stay – all we have to do is wait for Nintendo to actually get round to announcing it.