kmtrain83

I voted "Maybe when it drops in price" although it would have to be a pretty steep drop. Maybe I would try it out in 1-2 years as a clearance model if a version 2 arrives. I can't find a place for this device with my current set up, and I don't intend to renew Game Pass.

@MinervaX76
This makes me wonder if maybe I need to ask my financial guy about my video game portfolio at our next meeting.

I did not have a big gaming collection until about five years ago when I got back into it. I previously just played the same things over and over. Now my backlog is so big, that I am mostly looking to work on that.

360 was the best name

Although this is an Xbox owned property, I tend to associate it as its own thing even now

This technobabble doesn’t mean much to me. What’s the actual plan? If we’re going to get an Xbox native version of Hellblade 3: Senua”s Revenge or something, in which case I don’t care. Series X was already powerful, but it’s still below a gaming desktop level, so PC snobs will not be impressed at the Nextbox either.

That reminds me I pre-ordered the "Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - Lumiere Edition GameStop Exclusive - PlayStation 5" set to launch October 31. I wonder this "near future" update will be included on the disc.

Gaming PC aficianados are quite adept at figuring out what is a deal based on specs. They look at websites and Reddit posts with spreadsheets containing FPS per dollar. The lower price ROG Ally apparently does not match up well to the higher one.

As someone who previously rented and finally bought my own home some years ago, I can tell you it was like a cloud was lifted when I went from renter to owner. I don't think I can ever go back to renting, and hopefully I won't have to. With digital games, you are ceding part of the rights of ownership to the corporations in a way that did not exist with physical media. For some people this feels like a step back. As far as longevity goes, the jury is out on that one. I'd have to give the edge to digitial. Case in point, I am more likely to be able to play Marvel's Spider-Man 2 on Steam in 2050 than on my PS5 disc.

The screenshot of the French guy reminds me of everything I dislike about Youtube.

@OldGamer999
I agree with you in princple. It is possible by the 2030s though, that the kids who grew up with Minecraft and Roblox will settle for blocky home streaming games via Netflix. It's like me that I am fine playing songs on my Echo dot with Spotify, while a true audiophile will spend thousands on their music set up. The market will evolve in the direction of the consumer.

We live in interesting times when a $3 trillion company has to respond to a guy on the internet.

The 1 and 5 hour limits can't be the final policy. I might as well just play a throway mobile game.

@AverageJoseph
Your style actually makes sense for a subscription service because you go through a healthy variety of games on a consistent basis. I’m just not sure how large is that slice of the market.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner
I see the end coming in 10-15 years the tech monopolies will gatekeep all games behind a cloud paywall, subscription based with limited rights of ownership, at the price they decide is good for you. I could see Google, Amazon, Microsoft, which dominate cloud services, eventually forcing Sony and Nintendo to join or be destroyed.

@Questionable_Duck
Yeah I was saying if you are a Fortnite and Assassin's Creed sicko, you are probably delighted right now.

@Questionable_Duck
It's true Clair Obscur, Silksong, and Blue Prince are all contenders, but their retail value is $100 combined to own, versus just renting access to them from Game Pass. If you are one and done type of gamer, I guess you could subscribe for a month or two and rush through them, and pay less overall. If they had physical releases like back in the day, you could also buy and flip used, for a slight net loss, but are they slowly eroding that market.

I got the Series S as a cheap Game Pass experiment. Sadly, I just don't see the value on staying on with the next gen if / when that comes out. Our household was PC > Nintendo > Sony. There won't be room for Xbox proper at these inflated prices.

I'm very happy with the changes! : 1%
This person must really like Fortnite and Assassin's Creed

I’m paid for Ultimate through August 2027 when my son (who is the primary account holder on the Xbox ) goes off to college. I don’t know how much Game Pass will cost at that point. I still can’t get over the fact that this is just a rental fee. You don’t own anything. It will make more sense to be selective and just buy the games I want probably after they go on their initial markdown.

@Banjo-
Yes, I used one of those conversion deals before they closed the loophole on that to get 36 months for roughly the price of 13 months a couple of years ago. So I definitely know about taking advantage of their system.
In the end, though it’s just a rental cost like getting it from Blockbuster, because if I decide not to renew my subscription, all I have left are the memories. For the average gamer it’s a $700 Series X + $360 a year to rent games for let’s say five years that’s $2500. I just don’t know if you could call it “the best deal in gaming” anymore when you total it up like that.

@Banjo-
The people on this website are a small sliver of the most overall subscribers, and probably don’t factor into this price hike. Microsoft is within their discretion to release the data on who pays full price versus who gets codes through the gray market. I predict they will keep silent.

It’s even worse when you consider the $30 per month versus a $60 or $70 game that the former is a rental fee and the latter is the ownership price. If you just care to rent and not own, then you could buy three $60 games a month and flip them when you’re done for $50 and that’s basically the same $30 net loss. But who goes through three $60 games a month? That takes a lot of time.

@Westernwolf4
The Xbox technically belongs to my son as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago We stacked Game Pass until the month he leaves for college mid 2027. Neither the Xbox nor the subscription will be going with him.

@MarzoriuM
I paid $10 a month for Netflix with ads. If I took my family of five to the movie theater to see something similar, it would cost way more than that. The value proposition for $30 per month or $360 per year of Game Pass is just not the there for me anymore at the level I use it.

@Boogaloo_Jenkins
I’m in the same boat. I bought it on an impulse sale for $250 and Xbox remains our fourth most common platform in the house going in order of PC Switch then PS5. I also stacked three years of Game Pass back when it was a thing. When that runs out I’m out.

@Grackler
You will only be able to trade in games as long as they make a physical version. We can see they’re moving toward digital only and rental preferred.

@Banjo-
I’m not sure if these corporations can turn on a dime and go from raising rental fees every six months to all of a sudden giving away services for free.

I also play Xbox games on my Sony device (Bravia TV), so right back at you Sarah Bond!

@BAMozzy
I purchased some TV episodes on my 2006 iPod, and I have been with Apple in some way shape or form since then, but at some point they just vanished from my account. You can't account for everything. Sometimes, you just have to let things go.

I wish they had remastered Morrowind instead. That was my first TES game on Xbox. I completed that plus one of the expansions. I completed Oblivion and the expansions on PC later. I find myself wanting to go back to Morrowind, but I have no further interest in Oblivion. I also started Skyrim multiple times on PC, Switch, and Playstation, but I never got very far for some reason.

@BAMozzy
I tend to agree with this prediction, although nobody can really say for sure what will happen 20-30 years from now. People point back to SNES games they can still play, but the digital infrastructure did not exist back then. Past performance does not equate to future results. Regardless, I wouldn't worry too much about a consumer purchase decision made today with that timeframe in mind. We're not talking about retirement planning; it's just a piece of entertainment.

@WildConcept6
I’m sure ASUS knows what they’re doing since this is not their first handheld, and they also make gaming laptops. As far as them selling out, I think that has more to do with the limited supply in a niche marrket. Valve will not announce Steam Deck sales but after three years at a low price point they estimate maybe 4 million. Switch 2 sold that much in a couple of days. Microsoft also makes laptops, and it makes me wonder why they didn’t have the confidence a make their own handheld.under the Surface brand. Xbox Surface X.

@WildConcept6
It is not easy to thread the needle with low power, long battery life, good screen, low weight, comfort, performance, and price.
Nintendo gets away with it because their audience favors a certain style of games that are not as resource intensive.
This ASUS device is swimming with the sharks in the PC Master Race gamer pool, where the competition is more fierce. PC makers do not want to lose money on hardware, because how else can they make up for it?

These add on costs just push this product even more into the niche enthusiast category.

I read the comments on the sister sites. They disabled comments on Nintendo Life. On Push Square they are decidedly more negative for some reason. It may just be the audience is slightly different.

I think I’m still 5 to 10 years away from wanting this kind of device. I already have a gaming backlog on PC and all 3 consoles. I don’t need a device backlog. However, if cloud and handheld PC takes off further, and if the traditional console concept slowly dies, then something like this could be one of my main drivers.

@Gabrie
I view this device more as the 2.0 version of the ASUS handheld with a little bit of Xbox sprinkled in

@cburg
People complain about phone prices too.
And smart phones have stopped being a niche product about 5 to 10 years ago. Almost anything you do in life they assume you have one accessible.
Whereas this handheld gaming device is very definition of a niche.product.
For me, the prices are reasonable given what is out there in the marketplace. It’s just not something I need right now because I have so many other technologies that I would rank higher.

@Phil-Spencer-Gate
This is an interesting prediction. One thing I wonder is if we will see a two tiered system of the "PC-hybrid" future. I believe PC-first gamers would be open to "console" experience but at an inflated hardware cost $600-1200. Whereas the more casual audience would settle for a built-in Xbox app on their smart TVs with no additional hardware costs, and just a streaming subscription -> I'm not sure how many years (if ever) the cloud-based format will avoid latency issues. For the ultra-hard core gamer, any degree of latency is a dealbreaker.
I do wonder if gaming will leave behing those parts of the world that can't afford $1000 for a device, or who don't have high speed internet. That to me seems like a regression, and not an expansion of the market.

I’ll follow this product, but I doubt I will get it

Nintendo Switch 2 outsold the entire Xbox series X/S lifetime sales in Japan in one day.

I might try Marvel: Midnight Suns if there is time

@Banjo- @Banjo-
Yes It comes down to preference
I have experience with all 3 consoles, and enjoy them all in their own way .
My point was that we know how many each sold under the traditional prices and now if you raise prices it is more likely the marketplace will skew less in favor of the Xbox, which was already trailing behind.
It’s basic supply and demand economics

I got fairly lucky with Series S on sale at Target several years ago for $250 and 5% discount. I would not have entered the ecosystem at today's prices. I also stacked ~ 3 years of Game Pass for roughly the same price as would get less than 1 year now. At these prices you would do better with Switch 2 (just $50 more than Series S, but is portable, or PS 5 Pro if you want to be on the high end of console specs.

It looks like a step in the right direction.

I said before that I will wait for pricing and reviews, and a month out I’m still waiting…

@AverageJoseph
I gave it a go, and for some reason, the first shopkeeper I met got mad at me, so I decided to punch him and then he killed me with a spell.

@Ricky-Spanish
At this point they might be thinking Skyrim is due for a remaster to keep pace with The Last Of Us Part II.
I skipped Oblivion: Remastered, but I would not mind playing Morrowind on a modern console

I got it on sale at Target a few years ago at $250. I also loaded up 3 years of Game Pass when that was a thing. If it wasn't for these low price points, I would not have bothered. As it stands, it is still 4th place in our household in terms of hours played after PC > Switch > PS5 > Series S. I still like having it around though. I have no problem with the performance or graphics hooked up to an 85" TV. I thought Indiana Jones and Marvel Midnight Suns looked great.