Xbox is working on a handheld console to rival the Nintendo Switch

The project is still at the prototype stage so we'll be waiting a while

Xbox has finally confirmed that it is working on a handheld console to rival the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck.

• READ MORE: ‘Indiana Jones And The Great Circle’ is a Nazi-bashing adventure worthy of the whiptastic great

Xbox has been teasing an Xbox handheld for months now. In June, boss Phil Spencer told IGN that, “the future for us in hardware is pretty awesome. The work that the team is doing around different form factors, different ways to play, I’m incredibly excited about.” 

In a new interview with Blomberg, Spencer said the “expectation is that we would do something” in the handheld gaming space and confirmed that developers are currently working on prototypes while others are conducting market research. “Longer term, I love us building devices. And I think our team could do some real innovative work, but we want to be informed by learning and what’s happening now,” he added before confirming that an Xbox handheld console is “years” away. 

Elsewhere in the interview, Spencer confirmed there was nothing stopping Xbox-exclusive games being released on rival consoles. “I do not see sort of red lines in our portfolio that say ‘thou must not,'” he confirmed, before adding it was too early to discuss if the next Halo game will be multi-platform. Xbox recently confirmed a “new dawn” for Halo with “multiple” games being worked on.

Earlier this year, Microsoft confirmed a number of Xbox-exclusives would be made available on “rival” consoles. Both Grounded and Pentiment were released for Nintendo Switch while Hi-Fi Rush and Sea Of Thieves launched on the PS5. Indiana Jones And The Great Circle will launch on Xbox next month but has already confirmed a PlayStation release for next year. 

Nintendo is due to launch the successor to the Switch at some point next year. There have been plenty of rumours about what the new console will look like and could be called but the only thing that’s been confirmed by Nintendo is that the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible.

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