ROG Xbox Ally Handheld Gets Official October 2025 Release Date

The 16th of October is only 57 days away. How much longer can Microsoft keep the prices under wraps? People will want to secure their pre-orders as soon as is possible to avoid any potential disappointment...

I'm looking forward to getting my RoG Xbox Ally X when it releases in October.

@Fiendish-Beaver well you can't secure a 'pre-order' until they go live and won't get any 'sooner' than Oct - therefore it doesn't really matter if pre-orders only go live a week before release as 'everyone' has the same opportunity to pre-order that day as they do if pre-orders went live today.

Regardless of what day they do go live, that still doesn't mean you'll not be disappointed if Demand exceeds Supply, if you aren't 'lucky' to get one with your preferred retailer, due to demand and/or queueing etc. People didn't get their Day 1 Series/Playstation consoles because 'pre-orders' sold out extremely quickly...

Whilst I understand what you are saying, @BAMozzy, there is still the possibility of there being limited stock, and so people will want to secure their order as soon as possible in order to avoid any potential disappointment. I agree that everyone has the same chance to get it on day one, but if there is limited stock, then getting one may entail shopping around in order to find one online.

Personally, I have zero interest in getting any handheld. I have a Switch, and have only ever played one game on it despite owning it for 3 years. And even then, I played it in docked mode!

However, I do know that I would want to know as soon as possible that I have secured my order so that I can then relax and wait impatiently for it to be delivered. I like to be prepared in life, and leaving things to the last minute just stresses me out...

@Fiendish-Beaver Prices were just leaked alongside this announcement as $549 / $899 respectively, which sounds about in line with what was expected. So I wouldn't be surprised if the leak is accurate.

I saw the leaked prices but I dunno, I think that can change per market conditions lol

@Fiendish-Beaver All I meant was that pre-orders can go live a week before release for example so EVERYONE has the SAME opportunity to pre-order to get their device on Day 1.

It doesn't matter if pre-orders go live 20days or 60days 'before' day 1, as you still have exactly the same opportunity to get the device on October 16th. As long as they notify us when 'pre-orders' are due to go live, it really doesn't matter if its 1 week, 1 month or 1 year in advance, you still can't get it before the Day 1 release.

Its no different from waiting for Shops to open to be first in line on Day 1 or first in line to 'pre-order' the day they go live. No point worrying about stock limits when NO-ONE can pre-order yet, when its still weeks away from being available to 'buy'! Pre-orders tend to ensure you'll get the device on Day 1 where turning up to buy maybe won't be successful. Pre-orders don't get the 'device' before Day 1 so you'll still have to wait. Pre-ordering - even a 'week' before isn't leaving things to last minute...

Going to buy it so I can scalp it.

Official release date but no official price? lol. Is that a joke?

It's not for me, but at least they were clear, finally, and said what it can and can't do. It plays PC games, and you can stream your console games from the cloud.

Will there be an official dock to go along with it? I think it would be pretty cool if they developed some sort of hybrid laptop device for it. Basically a dummy laptop that had a touchpad, keyboard and screen that could connect via Bluetooth or at worse with a single cable. Maybe even be able to have an extra sd drive in it for non gaming storage. Then you could use this for work tasks also. That would be incredible to me.

I would like one but I'm guessing it's going to be out of my price range so no...I won't be getting it

WHAT????? My country is NOT in the list!! I don't believe this... By the way we do not even have the cloud option in game pass... However all previous versions of the Ally are available in major retailers...

Edit: well lots of Eurozone countries are missing from the list also...

Saw a reddit comment that cracked me up

May as well skip every other step and ship them directly to landfills.

if you did, you would probably then have to sell it at a loss, @TrevorP86. I'm not sure it will sell out when pre-orders go live, not sure there is enough demand for it...

I think we will be fighting scalpers again

I don't think they will sell out either, @Titntin. If I was interested in getting one, though, I'd like to know that I had secured my order just in case they do sell out (whether to individuals or scalpers (though if it is scalpers, I cannot imagine them making a lot of money on their investment!))...

@Fiendish-Beaver We have leaked prices, but I feel like they're watching the market, economy, and US tarrifs very very closely. They're probably afraid to jump the gun and then have to raise prices (that'd bring on so much had press).

@Vipor007 I'll be one of the scalpers

So we have to pay a subscription to play console only games that we have purchased over the years and those games are only available through the cloud.

Its kind of bad to be honest, especially for those that have never used a pc for gaming because the amount of games on the xbox pc app compared to the console store is quiet small and not all of them are on the "play anywhere" programme.

Yeah no thanks.

@EdgarTheBug in a nutshell, yes. The bonus though is you will be able to set up a steam account, cut Microsoft out, and buy any new games cheaper.

@Weebleman Yeah good shout but then it could be said, getting a steam deck oled instead would be the wiser option.

Edit: especially if one doesn't care about specs, graphics and high framerates.

I likely wont pick one up, or at least at launch, but I wont lie, every time I see it, the temptation ramps up so much. It looks amazing.

Sorry to disappoint you, @Millionski, but I never venture on to the Nintendo forums as I barely use my Switch.

Not sure which non-existent problem you are talking about though. I was just saying that they are, in my opinion, leaving it late for enabling pre-orders. Or was it the comment regarding it selling out? Not sure what I have said to upset you this time... 😂

@EdgarTheBug exactly. With them confirming that the 'full screen xbox experience' is basically just an update of the xbox app, you will be able to side load it on a steam deck or just straight up use it on the older rog models.

@Millionski Honestly, I think next Xbox will play not too differently to the Rogs. I think we will be able to play Xbox and PC Xbox, from the console, with streaming available for both. I also think these handhelds (and other supported handhelds down the line) will also play Xbox PC natively, with streaming for console games.

That's pretty big to me. For instance, there's a game on game pass today classed Blacksmith. Sadly it's only on PC game pass and not Xbox. That wont be a problem if I could play PC from the next Xbox, nor is it a problem if I had one of these Rog handhelds. If they can really remove all these barriers, we're in for an amazing and accessible future.

@Millionski "and even 5% of your library with play anywhere is better than 0 with steam deck if you have not used steam before"

Yeah agreed, it will be hard choice for any console gamer then when it comes to software (game's).

So while I've been afainstbyetting any new Xbox hardware, I have also had an ASUS Z1 Xtreme which I didn't like and I've wanted to get new memory for the Series X so I can store more hames on it. So what did I do? Bought a 1 TB Carbon Black Series S that's actually smaller than the ROG (which requires lots of charging when playing the type of games I like it else the battery tocks down like a clock). I'll be using this to store my games, take traveling and still be able to save for a PC build next year. It's really more of just a machine to play 1-2 games I like anyway & PC handhelds haven't really scratched my itch they way I need it yet. Happy theyre launching now so they can improve and lower the price in the future.

I'm in the market for a good handheld pc. I have a steam deck, but it's too underpowered for any recent games.

Going to be getting either the rog xbox x with windows 11 or the legion go 2 with steam os. Going to wait for reviews of both first. Although if the Windows 11 performance is significantly better than it is currently due to optimizations, then I may get the rog near launch.

@Millionski I'm not a tech savvy person, and you may know the answer to this more than I do, but could PC not play console games natively? Or does that require emulators? (which I know can be pretty hit and miss).