Microsoft Explains Why ROG Xbox Ally Price & Pre-Orders Haven't Been Announced Yet

If any rumor is proven to be true than affordability is long out the window.

I guess it makes sense in a very unstable economic market globally. Some countries maybe a bit more stable than others but can change quickly.

They can't set a price then see some costs going up and up, then have to adjust the price before launch. Pre-order at $900 but due to external issues they had no control over, they have to raise the price to $950+, that's going to be a disaster. It seems that they 'expect' to release at $900, but are not very optimistic that the 'global' market will settle or stabilise to commit to a price despite how close to release it is.

All it takes is for some 'cost' - even just the price of fuel - can impact the Cost to manufacture and Distribute globally. Raw materials go up, as do the cost to ship over the world - and that's just 1 cost, but add rising costs to silicon and other raw materials, to labour and overheads, to advertising/marketing etc etc.

I think so because some other company might have something in the development pipeline like Sony for example but I could be wrong.

It's clear the insiders have outdated information. MS are probably trying to find a way to drive to cost to improve sales and optics.

sony raising console prices. by $50 dollars because of tariffs.

That price may be higher than people are expecting. Otherwise, they would feel better about announcing it. Yes, politics are affecting their decision but I feel like of it was remotely affordable they would have given a price.

If the prices are right, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to be fair. It seems to be well worth it and not "overly" different to what else is on the market (and what they launched at).

@Millionski The New Chip is NOT basically the same - its the next Gen with an AI NPU built in - something the previous 'X' did not. It also has a lot more material and FULL Size controls, rumble built into the triggers and its also a Licenced product too so split revenue.

We have also seen that hardware isn't getting 'cheaper' as all the other costs rise - the cost of raw materials, the cost of the manufacturing process (higher electric or fuel costs), higher wages, higher overheads, higher shipping costs etc etc which increases faster than they can 'reduce' costs.

One way was to reduce the Chip size - going from 90nm to 45nm is a BIG saving in size, but if you already use 4nm, there isn't much scope to reduce the chip size, which in turn helps reduce the power requirements and heat/cooling needs. That's why you saw 'Slim' console come out 'cheaper' - because they could shrink things down to use far less raw materials so costs reduced.

You aren't going to see 'dramatic' chip size changes so they cannot 'reduce' the cost but because Silicon is 'high demand' and costs rising, that year old+ chip is more expensive to produce than it was - there 'profit' margin shrinks and shrinks until they lose money or raise prices.

The Ally X has a Z1 Extreme chip - the exact same chip as in the OG RoG Ally. The new Xbox versions both have a Z2 chip - the base (White) version has AMDs Z2 A processor whilst the X (Black Version) has AMD's AI Z2 A Extreme processor. the Xbox X has double the RAM and Faster too.

I don't really know how much different Z2 is from Z1 but the OG Ally X certainly doesn't have the AI NPU built in.

I can't say f they've managed to build the new Xbox Ally X for a similar cost to the OG X, despite the differences, but it doesn't seem that 'unreasonable' considering the newer Chip, faster RAM, full size controls and 'bigger' form factor (more materials) and of course 'Xbox' Branding/Licencing too!

It's gonna be expensive, and out of many's league.
Considering the likes of Indiana Jones and possibly Starfield coming to Switch 2 , surely a unit for £400 was possible.

this really is a system for the rich kids.
Its like the Neo Geo AES was back in the day with it's £150 +cartridge games

it's crazy times when a gaming handheld can be £800

Does anyone know if we can expect the regular Xbox Ally to be the same or more powerful than the Ally Z1 Extreme? ...wondering if I should entertain upgrading from my Z1 Extreme.

Hey the Fed might announce interest rate cuts, bet they'll adjust the their pricing based on the next two meetings & some tariff announcements to blow over. Bad timing to launch anything without variable pricing being a thing (which would suck)

And this is why I don't believe any leaked price. I'm sure Microsoft and ASUS are eyeing a few different prices right now, but it's dependent on what happens with tarrifs and they definitely don't want to have to raise prices at any stage of the lead up to launch. Prices for existing products have already increased a lot for this Gen. If Nintendo can raise the price of last Gen hardware then nothing is safe. Now if I were ASUS, I would have pushed for a $400 & $800 price tag. I'm curious how far they'll get away from that. They gave wiggle room because this is about how expensive the PC handheld market is, but only so much especially if they want to target wider audiences and be less niche.

@deck2461 What I had seen is that the Z2 baseline is supposed to be exactly as powerful as the Z1E. This was not at all in reference to the Xbox Ally and Z2A though. We probably will have to wait for products to get out there to see the testing. Supposedly the Z2E disappoints in terms of improvements over the Z1E. It's all really up in the air. The only testing we even have on those Z2 chips come from early models from China of devices like the Lenovo Legion Go 2.

@KITG_Group_BrunoB I mean, you could play both of those games right now and even more of Xbox's first party games on a Steam Deck which starts at less than the Switch 2. Indiana Jones is literally Steam Deck verified. An actual Xbox first party handheld probably could be cheaper, but this is at its core still an ASUS windows PC gaming handheld OEM. Microsoft probably isn't willing to foot the hardware cost bill much at all.

@deck2461 the Z2A on the base model is basically the Steam Deck chip specs wise, and I would expect the performance to be closer to that rather than any previous Rog Ally. Give or take the Windows performance tax and how well MS has optimized.

@BAMozzy unfortunately the global market isn’t even strong for Xbox outside of the Anglo countries due to Microsoft’s lack of marketing this generation for the series consoles. So in reality we are only talking USA and the commonwealth countries plus maybe Japan for Xbox branded handhelds. So even more of a niche product than a steam deck perhaps. Maybe it will surprise everyone just like the streaming only PS portal did.

Lmao, add $100 to the leaked prices.

@WildConcept6 well they cancelled there official handheld, so probably not.

@KITG_Group_BrunoB Not canceled "shelved" which could mean anything. The actual story is just that they moved resources from the team to get the full screen Xbox mode up and ready. But anyway, the sentence was hypothetical. "An official first party handheld COULD be cheaper." It's current status doesn't really matter. I'm just saying a PC OEM isn't going to be as cheap as official console hardware.