Robbie Bach, the former Chief Xbox Officer, recently discussed the company's early plans for a handheld ("Xboy") and said that while he doesn't remember the project ever getting to the prototype stage, but there were definitely sketches.
The plans for "Xboy" came up as a project a couple of times at Microsoft, with the former Chief Xbox Officer noting that the project was not always called "Xboy," though the hypothetical device was always called "X something."
Bach stated that the device never came to fruition, for the reason that they just couldn't focus. And the company did not have the bandwidth, based on the report of IGN.
Fortunately for Microsoft, as smartphones soon dominated the mobile scene, the process of deciding to focus all of the company's efforts on the console market worked in its favor.
Bach said that on the company's point of view, it was an issue for the center of interest and as it turned out strategically - it was a smart decision, but still they considered it accidental.
However, the cancellation of "Xboy" was a disappointment for handheld gamers, for the reason that it would be awesome, as "PlayStation Vita" as well as "Nintendo 3DS," and "Xboy" are competing with each other to be the best handheld system, according to Game Pad Project.
But, Bach made it known that the Xbox team ultimately believed that it had been the right decision to not pursue "Xboy", considering the way the handheld market was overtaken by smartphone gaming over the past few years, Game Spot reported.
That being said, the decision of the multinational technology company to cancel the "Xboy" worked out for them, as the tech company got to focus their efforts on the "Xbox 360," according to Twinfinite.
Still, it would have been interesting to see what Microsoft would have come up with in that space.
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