Valve’s handheld device, the Steam Deck, wasn’t the first portable gaming PC ever created, but it is by the far the most successful. And like Steam becoming the de facto way people play PC games in 2025,

“I would say it’s bringing the best of Xbox and Windows together, because we have spent the last 20 years building a world-class operating system, but it’s really locked to the console,” says Ronald. “What we’re doing is we’re really focused on how do we bring those experiences for both players and developers to the broader Windows ecosystem.”

Jason Ronald, Microsoft's VP of Next Generation, wants to bring "the best of Xbox and Windows together" on existing gaming handheld PCs.

The future of Microsoft's handheld gaming plans includes a marriage between the best of Xbox and Windows. That's according to Microsoft's Xbox hardware veteran Jason Ronald, who also teased that the company would have "a lot more to share later this year" on what exactly its Windows-powered handheld vision might look like.

Microsoft is looking to improve its Windows operating system on handheld PCs such as the Asus ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go by making the software more like an Xbox console.

Microsoft is at CES 2025 talking about its handheld ambitions, which includes trying to find the middle ground between Xbox and PC.

Windows 11 is often cited as the worst thing about handheld gaming PCs - but it looks like Microsoft could soon fix this.

Microsoft plans to merge Windows and Xbox for handheld gaming in 2025 Valve's SteamOS aims to be integrated into all gaming handhelds Microsoft must succeed with its hybrid to compete with Valve's expansion efforts.

The Steam Deck has been the biggest PC gaming hardware story of the last few years. So it’s no surprise that the idea of running SteamOS (perhaps the most celebrated component of that machine) on other handhelds like the Legion Go S is also a big deal.