Jason Ronald is one of many Xbox staffers who may not ring a bell as much as Phil Spencer, but has been a huge part of the company behind the scenes. As Vice President for Xbox’s Gaming Devices and Experiences Division, he led the team designing Xbox consoles, including the Xbox Series X|S.
Last year, we reported on a rumor that his team was taken off of production of the next generation of Xbox, to be replaced by the Microsoft Surface team. At the time, the rumor seemed like an indication that things were not good behind the scenes, but of course this turned out to be an incomplete picture.
As it turned out, Jason Ronald is now Microsoft’s VP of Next Generation, though it isn’t clear if he may still also be in the Gaming Devices and Experiences Division. But in this new positioned, he was announced to be attending yesterday’s Lenovo event called “Lenovo Legion x AMD: The Future of Gaming Handhelds.”
Ronald was interviewed by The Verge in that event, where he told them that Microsoft had plans to enter PC handheld gaming before they are even done developing their Xbox dedicated handheld. He said this:
““The reality is the Xbox operating system is built on top of Windows. So there’s a lot of infrastructure that we built in the console space that we can bring to the PC space and really deliver that premium gaming experience on any device.”
And yes, Ronald promises they’ll make everything simpler and like a console on Windows:
“We’re focused on really simplifying that and making it much more like a console experience. Our goal is to put the player and their library at the center of the experience and not all the [Windows] work that you have to do today.”
Ronald was also upfront on how long we would have to wait to learn about Microsoft’s plans:
“I think we’ll have a lot more to share later this year. I think it’s going to be a journey and I think you’ll see a lot of investments over time that you’re starting to see already, but we’ll have a lot more to share later this year.”
Ronald actually spoke in a roundtable at the event with people from Lenovo, AMD, and Steam, who recently announced that they’re bringing SteamOS to the Lenovo Legion Go S. It’s certainly remarkable that Xbox and Steam can sit at the same table to work with the same OEMs.
But if you know Microsoft, they have been about working with their competitors since Satya Nadella came in to take the company culture away from its competitive Silicon Valley founders, towards a surprisingly successful new direction.
The Verge claims the impression they got was that Microsoft would make some kind of mode or feature in Windows 11, so that you could activate Xbox like it was Steam Picture Mode. And that’s something PC gaming handhelds needed since the first GPD Win released in 2016.
Since Microsoft already has a Microsoft store for games on PC, a Game Pass subscription service to entice PC gamers, and a new prerogative to find audiences outside of Xbox consoles, they have every reason to get this right. Here’s hoping Jason Ronald and his team delivers on their promises.
