The handheld market might have been taken up by smartphones and tablets today, but a generation or two ago both Sony and Nintendo were thriving on their portable handheld gaming devices. For a while, most speculated that Microsoft would also join the handheld market by delivering a “Xboy”, their own unique handheld gaming device. As it turns out, Microsoft was interested in developing their own handheld, but the project lacked focus and it was ultimately scrapped.
IGN recently had the chance to interview former Xbox head, Robbie Bach, in which we learned some exciting news of what could have been Microsoft’s first handheld gaming device. Fans were not the only one interested in a Xboy as Robbie revealed that Microsoft had a team writing ideas of a portable gaming device.
While it never entered the prototype phase, this handheld was something that was being considered and designed by the Xbox team. Although, Microsoft had one big disadvantage when it came to the project and that was resources.
Apparently, there weren’t enough resources to pull employees onto the project and because of it, Microsoft opted to further work on ideas for their current console at the time, the Xbox 360. In hindsight, Robbie admits that it was a lucky accident as today the portable handheld market has been flooded with smartphones and tablets.