the best experience for as many games as you can. As gamers, we pay attention to the value of features and their associated costs, and build our devices that properly focus on maximizing features that players care about — in handhelds, this is a tight balance of performance, battery life, and comfortable size and ergonomics. Windows Handhelds have always been technologically sophisticated and ROG fully understands building for hardware enthusiasts, resulting in our premium ROG Ally and ROG Ally X platforms bringing top tier performance and design: This continues in our performance and experience leadership in
the ROG Xbox Ally X adopting all of the best features for a premium handheld. In Xbox Ally, we’re designing for a more mainstream consumer that
wants a better balance between performance and costs, so we target solid performance, but really focused on playing with great battery life — allowing those players to have constant access to all of their games and play deeper into their Xbox Game Pass subscriptions.
Were there specific areas you had to hit with the handhelds from a branding perspective in order for the Xbox x Asus ROG partnership to go ahead? We wanted to really make our collaboration iconic and demonstrate the monumental moment of two great gaming brands working together, so we wanted to bring our identity and mastery in our own ways, and with this we really created a collaborative device that merged the brands well.
Between the “This Is An Xbox” ad campaigns and the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds, are we seeing a shift towards “Xbox” being a term more akin to “DVD Player”, where lots of companies will be making them in lots of form factors? We would recommend getting Microsoft’s perspective on their strategies around their “This is an Xbox” campaign. From the ROG brand perspective, we understand a wide range of hardware exists in the market, which can and are great conduits for playing and enjoying a variety of games. Having access to Xbox Game Pass, featured on our devices, does allow
for a wide range of games to choose from. This means finding a suitable game to play and experience (native on the device, streaming from the cloud, or remote play) for a given selection of hardware this is a great way for gamers to stay in sync with their playing from device to device.
How did the collaboration between Xbox and Asus ROG come about in the first place? We’ve been partnering with Microsoft for years, it’s a very natural fit as we’re both passionate about delivering the best gaming performance to our consumers — giving them the best experience with our products.
How do you make something like the ROG Xbox Ally range stand out compared to competitors like the Steam Deck, the Nintendo Switch 2, the MSI Claw or even the ROG Ally X? What would you say is its USP? The ROG Xbox Ally series of devices offers fantastic balance — performance to battery life, ergonomics to size and weight, with cost
and price in mind. In our collaboration with Xbox, we launched with the Xbox full screen experience and demonstrated console focused design for gaming handhelds. Leveraging Windows, our devices allow you to play ALL your
games on one device, streaming from Xbox Game Pass, and playing from all leading libraries and launchers. Post-purchase, consumers can also have confidence in the ROG and Xbox brands to deliver on-going improvements and features to our devices.
You’ve got the white and the black SKUs — are there any plans for funkier colours? Perhaps some transparent greens or purples to jump on the current Y2K revival trends? It’s an absolute possibility that we’ll look into bringing more colors to the lineup, and we definitely have some other ROG products that leverage translucent design — but we do not have any plans to share on this at this time.
How important is the TV-docked experience for the ROG Xbox Ally? Has it been an area of focus during development? I actually play my Steam Deck docked more than I thought I would, and often wish it was just a little bit more powerful so that I could get a full 1080p out of it. Playing on a TV is a fundamental pillar of the console experience, so docking is a very important feature for the ROG Xbox Ally series. As a Windows Handheld, we have solid coverage on the PC docking experience from work on the previous generation of ROG Ally devices and learnings to support Desktop experiences. For the ROG Xbox Ally series, our focus will be on external
controller support and playing experiences in the living room and on TVs, so that when you connect to our docking experiences, such as the ROG Bulwark (DG300) dock, gamers can easily jump into their favorite game and starting playing immediately, whenever they want to do so.
How has the reaction been from people who’ve gotten their hands on the ROG Xbox Ally already? The reception has been overwhelmingly positive, with significant demand and attention around the ROG Xbox Ally X, and we’re pleased to have delivered on experience and expectations around the ROG Xbox Ally series of devices. That said, we will continue to work to bring improvements to our consumers and hope to fulfill the high demand for purchases over the coming months. What is the plan for what’s next at Asus ROG after the Xbox
Ally range launches? Do you expect future consoles will also be branded by partners? We are fully focused on delivering the best experience
for gamers and we’re always exploring ideas and keeping all possibilities open. Handheld gaming is continuously evolving fast, and we’re very focused on bringing new experiences, so definitely stay tuned.
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