Amid Xbox handheld rumors, Phil Spencer says he has a "list of things we should go do" with one

Xbox boss Phil Spencer hasn't explicitly said an Xbox handheld is coming, but in a new Polygon interview, he said he has a number of ideas if one were to ever happen.

We've been asking for some sort of handheld Xbox system for a while now, and as of the last few days the rumor mill is a-churnin', but so far there's been no official word from Microsoft. However, Spencer has perhaps given us the best indication so far that Xbox indeed is planning something in the mobile/handheld space, explaining at some length what he wants out of just such a piece of hardware.

"I want my Lenovo Legion Go to feel like an Xbox," he said during this year's Game Developers Conference. "I brought [the Legion Go] with me to GDC. I'm on the airplane and I have this list of everything that makes it not feel like an Xbox. Forget about the brand. More like: Are all of my games there? Do all my games show up with the save [files] that I want? I’ll tell you one [game] that doesn’t right now — it’s driving me crazy — is Fallout 76. It doesn’t have cross-save."

In addition to wanting his handheld to store all of his saves across different platforms, Spencer also said he wants to "boot into the Xbox app in a full screen, but in a compact mode" and have "all of my social [experience]" available there. Likewise, his ideal handheld would allow him to boot up using just a controller. "I've got my list of things we should go do," Spencer said.

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.