Regular folk can now play on the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X, even if they still can’t preorder it yet.
The Asus ROG Xbox Ally is a mouthful of a name for a device, and yet I can’t stop saying the name—like I’m casting a spell—as we slide further toward the end of the year. At Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, Microsoft and Asus are giving players a chance to wrap their mitts around the strange Xbox controller-like grips of the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X. While the companies will tell you when you’ll eventually be able to pick one off a store shelf, they’re not quite ready to tell you how much it’ll cost.
Both the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X are slated for release on Oct. 16 in the U.S., Europe, and other markets in Asia. We won’t know how much it will cost and when we can preorder one until sometime “in the coming weeks,” Asus said in a press release. Gamescom attendees will be first to try out the new Xbox-ified version of Windows 11, which should make it easier than Microsoft’s regular ol’ OS to launch games on both the Xbox app and through third-party launchers like Steam and Epic Games Store. The handheld effectively dual boots into the base version of Windows 11 if you need to access all the apps you can’t from the new Xbox menu. Microsoft is also working on a “Handheld Compatibility Program” akin to Valve’s Steam Deck Verified badges. Xbox will label whether a game is “handheld optimized,” which means it works with the default controller layout, or “mostly compatible,” which will require a few adjustments.
