After months of rumors, Microsoft officially debuted its ROG Xbox Ally gaming PC on Sunday, made in collaboration with Taiwanese computer company Asus.
The ROG Xbox Ally is planned to ship this holiday season with two separate SKUs, with the same scheme and coloration as the Xbox Series X|S console. The white Ally is a lower-powered model aimed at casual players, while the more expensive black Xbox Ally X is billed as the “ultimate high-performance handheld.” No prices have been announced.
Both models of Xbox Ally are custom-made versions of Asus’ ROG Ally handheld unit, with exclusive features such as a dedicated Xbox guide button. They’re designed to support local native downloads, remote play by connecting to a local Xbox console, or streaming gameplay through the newly-rebranded Xbox Cloud.
According to Microsoft, the Xbox Ally runs an optimized version of Windows 11 Home that integrates features from both Microsoft’s Game Bar and Asus’ Armoury Crate app. The Windows OS also lets you install games from multiple digital storefronts such as Battle.net and Steam, or use apps such as Discord.
The Xbox Ally is also stated to feature a “Xbox full screen experience” that aggregates all your games from every available library connected to the device, eliminating the need to hunt through all your various apps to find what you’re looking for.
Both versions of the Ally are planned to ship with the recently-announced Copilot for Gaming integrated into the Game Bar, billed by Xbox as an AI-powered “personalized gaming companion.” The Xbox Ally X is also powered by an AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip, which is designed to “power the latest AI features as they are introduced.”
The Xbox Ally was revealed as part of this year’s Xbox Showcase, a 90-minute presentation held as part of the annual Summer Games Fest in Los Angeles. While past Showcases have been broadcast live from the Microsoft Theater, this year’s was pre-recorded, with segments hosted by Microsoft’s Sarah Bond, Matt Booty, and Phil Spencer.
Bond made a point of noting during the Showcase that every game that was shown this year will ship day-and-date on both Xbox Game Pass and will be compatible at launch with the Xbox Ally.
One big surprise about the Xbox Ally, mentioned almost in passing during the Showcase, is that the long-awaited indie platformer Hollow Knight: Silksong is currently scheduled as a “launch title” for the Ally. This is the first mention of Silksong anywhere during Summer Games Fest, which is a shock, as “where’s Silksong?” has been a running joke during every major gaming show for the last couple of years.
In a slightly lower-key detail, this was the first Xbox Showcase held after Microsoft’s recent move into cross-platform publishing. While no specific announcements were made on the topic, every game that’s also headed to competing storefronts like the PlayStation 5 or Steam was labeled as such during the 2025 Showcase. That was not the case in previous years’ shows.
Other announcements at this year’s Xbox Showcase included:
- The presentation opened and closed with an extended look at Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds 2 (Oct. 27), an action-RPG that returns to the same space-Western dystopian future as the original game. As a custom-created character, you are a single revolutionary who’s pitted against the corporate raiders who endanger the settled system Arcadia.
- Obsidian, as noted by Booty, is having a busy year. In addition to releasing Avowed a few months ago and the forthcoming TOW2, it plans to put out a preview version of Grounded 2 on July 29. This 4-player co-op game is a direct sequel to the original, where four teenagers are accidentally shrunk to bug size and must survive the dangers of their own back yard.
- Next year marks Xbox’s 25th anniversary. According to Phil Spencer, the plans for celebration include the long-awaited launch of the new Fable game, the next entry in the Forza series, and the Gears of War prequel E-Day, as well as the return of an unspecified classic Xbox title.
- The last world premiere at the Showcase was a CGI trailer for the next entry in the Call of Duty series. Black Ops 7, presumably out this holiday season, takes the series back to near-future military science fiction, complete with war mechs, autonomous robots, and a holographic butterfly.
- Tony Hawk made a surprise appearance during the show to talk up the forthcoming Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, a remake from Activision that bundles together two classic skateboarding games from the 2000s. The remake includes special appearances by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Slayer from Bethesda’s Doom reboot, both of whom come with specially-themed skate parks.
- Xbox studio inXile revealed a longer look at its forthcoming steampunk action-RPG Clockwork Revolution. As Morgan, a burglar turned potential insurrectionist, you discover the rulers of your city have used time travel to tighten their grip on power, and set out to stop them. No release date was given.
- Another Xbox studio, Double Fine, has been relatively quiet since it released its long-delayed adventure/platformer Psychonauts 2 in 2021. It broke that silence during the show with a trailer for its next project, Keeper (Oct. 17), a game where you control a walking lighthouse.
- Bethesda Softworks announced that its 2024 hit Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is getting an expansion pack. The Order of Giants (Sept. 4) returns Indy to Rome to uncover a relic from the catacombs below the Vatican.
- Gears of War Reloaded (Aug. 26) is a remastered version of the first game in the series, which offers crossplay between platforms and updated 4K graphics.
- The recent remake of Final Fantasy VII is planned for release on Xbox this winter, while 2023’s Final Fantasy XVI made a surprise Xbox debut during the Showcase.
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