Microsoft taking the Xbox experience to a mobile or handheld platform isn’t a matter of “if,” according to Microsoft’s Shane Kim, it’s a matter of when.
Just about everyone’s taken a dive into the portable end of the gaming hardware swimming pool at this point but Microsoft. Is the company afraid of the water, or just not interested? According to Shane Kim, Microsoft is just waiting for the right time to make its move. A portable Xbox experience happening is just a matter of time.
“For us, it’s a matter of focusing on ‘when’, because if we chased after a mobile or handheld opportunity, we would not have the resources and ability to do things like instant-on 1080p HD, Facebook, Twitter, Project Natal,” Kim said.
So the reason why the company has yet to pursue a portable Xbox opportunity is because its priorities are elsewhere. Microsoft, however, will make a shift at some point soon – Kim hinted that the company is “building a service in Live that will… will extend to other platforms.”
The question, Kim says, is how Microsoft will enter the market: “Do we do our own device, do we create our own phone – that’s a question for the company itself…But believe me, we understand the importance of that device in people’s lives.”
Kim seems to put more stress on how Microsoft is going to expand the Xbox experience to “all the important platforms in people’s lives” rather than explicitly stating that there’ll be a portable Xbox at some point, which really makes it sound like a handheld Xbox is just a hypothetical right now, if anything. It could happen, it will probably happen. Personally, I could wait a long time for it to happen – between two handhelds and my iPhone, I have enough gaming to keep me busy on the toilet. Uh, I mean, on the subway.
[Via Kikizo]
