A portable Xbox was once considered by Microsoft. This is essentially what Robert Bach, former director of the Xbox subsidiary from 1999 to 2010, reveals to us, thereby confirming comments made earlier. These revelations are made during an interview on Twitch on the sidelines of the New York Game Awards. Under the amused eye of Reggie Fils-Aimé, he approaches the subject with humor:
When I was running Xbox there were at least three teams that introduced me to a portable Xbox concept. Who knows why, she was always called Xboy. I think we would have had legal problems because of the name.
He says he systematically refused. This is justified by the fact that Xbox and Xbox Live launches were given priority at this point. So all the teams in the Xbox division worked on its implementation and success. He recalls that at the time, before the Switch, portable consoles and home consoles were two different systems, targeting two different markets. The development of the Xboy would have required a team devoted exclusively to its production, but all employees were already overwhelmed.
He finally adds that despite the refusal to develop a portable Xbox, the latter in some way exists through xCloud. Thanks to an Android laptop (and soon IOS), you can play Xbox games from anywhere. Nothing prevents you from putting an Xboy sticker on it to bring this often-canceled project to life!
