Ahead of Black Friday, Best Buy and Amazon are offering the 2TB WD Black SN850X PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe solid state drive (SSD) for the best price we’ve seen all year long. Right now, you can get it without heatsink for $129.99 or with heatsink (at Walmart) for $139.99. The WD Black SN850X is one of the best performing PCIe 4.0 SSDs on the market; this is the best SSD for your PlayStation 5 console, but it can also be a blazing-fast boot drive for your gaming rig.
2TB WD Black SN850X PS5 SSD (Without Heatsink)
2TB WD Black SN850X PS5 SSD (With Heatsink)
The SN850X is the latest generation of WD’s flagship Black series M.2 SSDs. In terms of performance, it’s considered a top-tier SSD with sustained read speeds of up to 7,300MBps, write speeds of 6,600MBps, random read speeds of up to 1,200K IOPS, and write speeds of 1,100IOPS. It’s faster than the previous generation SN850 thanks to newer flash chips (BiCS5 vs BiCS4) and an updated firmware.
If you plan to install this in your gaming PC, WD includes Game Mode 2.0 utility software that’s designed to tune the SSD for better performance during gaming sessions. Unless you have an unlimited budget, 2TB is the size I would recommend for a boot solid state drive; for most people, this is plenty of space for your OS and apps, and the price is still reasonable.
The SN850X also makes for an excellent SSD for your PlayStation 5 console. It’s identical to Sony’s officially licensed WD SN850P SSD. It more than fulfills all of Sony’s PS5 recommendations, including a M.2 2280 form factor, minimum 5,500MB/s speed, and PCI-E Gen4x4 interface. You can get the version with the pre-installed heatsink for $10 more, or you can just pick out a cheaper heatsink (it’s very easy to install). The SSD comes with a five-year warranty.
That is a great question. We will unquestionably see more SSD deals on November 29. The WD SN850X, however, is one of the fastest SSDs on the market and if you’re looking for the best of the best, we think there’s a slim chance that you’ll find a better deal. However, if you’re more flexible and willing to buy an SSD that isn’t quite the best, but still fast enough to fulfill all of Sony’s recommended PS5 specs, then you should wait and find a deal that’s closer to $100.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn’t hunting for deals for other people at work, he’s hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Ubisoft has issued a surprise update for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate on Xbox Series X and S, PS5, and PS5 Pro that lets you play at 60 frames per second.
The free patch offers doubled framerate on each console, Ubisoft said in a post on its website. There’s also 4K resolution on Xbox Series X, PS5, and PS5 Pro. Xbox Series S, and you’d expect, misses out on 4K.
Syndicate launched in 2015 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC as the ninth major game in Ubisoft’s long-running action adventure series. It’s set in London 1868, at the height of the Industrial Revolution. You lead an underworld organization and grow your influence to fight those who exploit the less privileged in the name of progress, with Assassin Jacob Frye and his twin sister Evie as playable characters.
PS5 and PS5 Pro: 1080p resolution at 60fps, 4K resolution at 60fps
The next mainline Assassin’s Creed game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, lets you play as either a Shinobi or Samurai and explore the open world of Feudal Japan. It’s due out on February 14, 2025.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Roblox has announced significant changes designed to protect children who play on the platform amid increased scrutiny and concern from parents.
As part of the changes due in the coming months, users under the age of 13 will no longer be able to directly message others on Roblox outside of games or experiences (also known as platform chat).
Roblox will also introduce a built-in setting that limits users under the age of 13 to public broadcast messages only within a game or experience. By default, users younger than 13 will not be able to directly message others. Parents can change this setting in Parental Controls.
From today, users under the age of nine will only be able to access games or experiences with content labeled Minimal or Mild, with parental consent required to access Moderate content.
Roblox’s changes come on the heels both of a damning Bloomberg report this summer about the prevalence of child predators on the platform and, more recently, a report from investment firm Hindenburg Research that accused the company of, among other things, being a haven for groomers and pedophiles due to a lack of up-front screening of new accounts.
It claimed to have found open trading of child pornography on the site as well as violent and hateful speech and sexually explicit content in numerous games marketed to kids on the platform. Roblox responded, saying that “safety and civility” have been “foundational” to Roblox since its inception. However, Hindenburg followed up by pointing out that it had not addressed allegations of Roblox being a “pedophile hellscape.”
“We’ve spent nearly two decades building strong safety systems, but we know there’s always more to be done,” Matt Kaufman, Chief Safety Officer at Roblox, said in a note to the press issued today.
“Last quarter saw a record average for daily active users on Roblox – over 88 million – and as our platform has grown in scale, we have always recognised that our approach to safety must evolve with it. Today’s launch represents the next stage in that evolution. It is the culmination of many months of product development and consultation with online safety experts, and follows the rollout of more than 30 new safety feature enhancements this year alone, as we continue on our mission to build a safe and civil space for play, learning and creativity for millions around the world.”
Also from today, accounts with parent privileges will be able to view their child’s screen time over the past week, set daily screen time limits, and view their child’s friends list. In addition, accounts with parent privileges will be able to access existing Roblox tools that allow parents to set spend restrictions, limit or enable certain chat functionality, and determine the type of content their child has access to.
In the coming months, Roblox will also introduce new restrictions to prevent users under the age of 13 from searching, discovering or playing experiences that have yet to be assigned a Content Label. Restricted content will remain blocked until a user is at least 17 years old and has verified their age by uploading a selfie and a photo of a valid government-issued ID.
Last week, Roblox announced that it will age-gate certain experiences for users under the age of 13, based on the type of user behaviors sometimes found in those experiences. These new restrictions apply to experiences that are primarily designed for socializing with users outside of their friends list and experiences that allow free-form writing or drawing, such as on a chalkboard or a whiteboard.
In 2022, a San Francisco lawsuit accused Roblox of enabling the financial and sexual exploitation of a 10-year-old girl. In 2023, it was sued both for allegedly facilitating “an illegal gambling ecosystem” and more generally for having lax child safety protocols that allegedly led to financial loss and children’s exposure to adult content.
Earlier this year, the platform announced it reported over 13,000 incidents of child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2023, resulting in the arrest of 24 predators who allegedly groomed and abused children on Roblox. This number is up 3,000 from 2022.
A Bloomberg report suggested that there remained a number of other abusers on the platform who had managed to evade capture. At the time, Roblox referred to itself as “one of the safest online environments for our users, particularly the youngest users.”
Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Sony’s $700 PlayStation 5 Pro gives games such as God of War: Ragnarok and Baldur’s Gate 3 a big performance boost but it’s also enduring teething problems, with players reporting issues in the likes of Silent Hill 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
The recently released remake of beloved survival horror game Silent Hill 2 perhaps has the most complaints, with Eurogamer having spotted a number of fans flagging that both developer Bloober Team and publisher Konami have yet to comment on graphical issues headlined by a shimmering or flickering effect.
“I immediately knew something was off without even seeing gameplay previously or even playing the game before this,” said Unlocky-Soil-2456 on Reddit. “That’s how bad this is. I can’t even bring myself to play it in this state because it’s so distracting.”
Several other games are affected by this similar shimmering issue too. “I love my PS5 Pro for the most part, most games look wonderful, but there seems to be an issue with some games,” said Chaystic on ResetEra. “There’s this weird shimmering, aliasing, whatever you wanna call it. One big example is Black Ops 6, I thought my Pro was faulty or something, but it turns out I’m not the only one who noticed it. I’ve seen several social media posts who reported the same.”
Fellow PS5 Pro owners in the comments pointed it out in Spider-Man 2, Stellar Blade, and Alan Wake 2 as well, while Digital Foundry discovered what it called “severe image quality problems” in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. “There are severe image quality concerns when elements like foliage interact with ray tracing,” it said. “The end result is a strobing image quality downgrade that makes this Pro patch difficult to recommend.”
The PS5 Pro arrived November 7 as Sony’s now standard mid-generation upgrade. More than 50 games received PS5 Pro specific patches upon its launch but, as this list includes Alan Wake 2 and Black Ops 6 among others receiving complaints, it’s worth proceeding with caution.
In our 7/10 review of the PS5 Pro, IGN said: “The PlayStation 5 Pro is an impressive console with noticeable boosts in performance and graphics for games that take advantage of its powerful hardware. But for $700, you’ll need to think twice about whether or not the upgrade is worth the price tag.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Ubisoft has clarified that Assassin’s Creed Shadows isn’t getting a battle pass amid rumors that the Animus Hub, the rebranded Assassin’s Creed Infinity set to house all future games in the franchise, will feature paid content.
The Animus Hub team posted on the Assassin’s Creed Reddit to correct leaks claiming the hub would contain paid rewards for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, leading many to believe a battle pass style system was being implemented.
“It has come to our attention that inaccurate rumors have been circulating online regarding the upcoming Animus Hub (ex-codename Infinity),” Ubisoft said. “We wanted to take this occasion to clarify that all the rewards available in the Animus Hub will be entirely free.”
The post went on to clarify “there are no paid subscriptions or paid battle passes featured in the Animus Hub” and “players will have access to regular content and missions at no extra cost.” More details will be revealed closer to the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which was recently delayed from November to February 14.
Ubisoft is also ditching its main paid content model of releasing a Season Pass with two main, paid expansion drops in the year after launch. The faux “early access” period that sees publishers charge players more to play on the actual release date instead of three days later has also been scrapped.
Releasing myriad pieces of downloadable content for free will perhaps bring some Assassin’s Creed fans back on-side in what’s otherwise been a particularly rough pre-launch campaign for Ubisoft.
Concern was also raised when the developer used a flag from a Japanese historical re-enactment group in artwork for Assassin’s Creed Shadows without permission. Ubisoft apologized for doing so but refused to remove the artwork from the aforementioned and presumably already printed artbook available in the Collector’s Edition. The historical re-enactment group said this was not good enough, but Ubisoft hasn’t publicly acknowledged it since.
All this comes as fans are already frustrated by the delay to the game, which puts Assassin’s Creed Shadows in more direct competition with PlayStation’s Ghost of Tsushima sequel, Ghost of Yotei. This is also expected in 2025 and is another open-world action adventure game set in Feudal Japan.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot maintained confidence, however. “There’s a lot of space for very high-quality games, and those two games can sell very well,” he said in the company’s latest earnings call. “The focus is to really make sure that we deliver a fantastic experience with this dual protagonist approach and two different and complimentary gameplays.”
Assassins Creed Shadows indeed features two protagonists, stealthy assassin Naoe and savage samurai Yasuke. The game’s story will weave between the two but players can otherwise switch between them at will as they explore Ubisoft’s open-world take on Japan.
Payday 3 developer Starbreeze has sparked backlash after confirming plans to make a “significantly lower level of investment” in the game’s second year.
Starbreeze’s struggle with Payday 3 after last year’s disastrous launch is well-documented, but its recent series of year one anniversary updates were well-received by players who had hoped for similarly significant updates during the co-op shooter’s second year. Indeed, Payday 3’s recent Steam user reviews are on ‘mostly positive’, with all reviews on ‘mixed.’
However, that goodwill may now be under threat after comments from Starbreeze acting CEO Mats Juhl in a financial report caused some Payday 3 players to express concern that the studio was now prioritizing its Dungeons & Dragons game instead.
The backlash revolves around Juhl’s comment on Payday 3’s level of investment for year two versus year one. It is below, reproduced in its entirety.
During the quarter, both the third and fourth DLCs for Payday 3 – “Chapter 3: Houston Breakout” and “Chapter 4: Fear & Greed” were released. In conjunction with both launches, a lot of free content was also released to all players, including a new free heist. Both DLCs received a very positive reception from the player base and the game’s rating on Steam, among others, has taken significant steps upwards. The game’s MAU (monthly active players) is holding steady considering that we in September left Xbox GamePass. The level of investment during Payday 3’s first year on the market, both through launched DLCs and “Operation Medic Bag”, has been at an elevated level. Ahead of year two, we are confident in being able to continue delivering amounts of value to our players with a significantly lower level of investment.
That last line (“significantly lower level of investment”) is the one causing all the damage here, and players are blaming it on Starbreeze shifting focus onto Project Baxter, its in-development Dungeons & Dragons game. Elsewhere in the financial report, Juhl said production on Project Baxter had ramped up (along with the payment of licensing fees to Wizards of the Coast), and that as Payday 3’s game-saving Operation Medic Bag updates ramp down, the game will enter year two “with a smaller team focused on continuously updating the game with new content.”
Disgruntled players have taken to Steam reviews to let their feelings about this be known. “Dead game,” reads one negative review, “like this time for real.” “Dropping this game as soon as it started to show promise is insane,” said another. “Significantly lower,” another review reads. “I’ve tried defending this game for so long, but it is really frustrating seeing the company executives kill this game before it has a chance to fully recover just to fund their next project that will more than likely flop, just like Payday 3,” another reviewer said. “Save your money and the headache; Payday 3’s future is genuinely grim.”
It’s a similar outcry over on the Payday subreddit, where fans are already hitting out at Starbreeze and Project Baxter.
Despite this, Starbreeze sounds like it still believes in Payday 3, even if some of its players do not. “Starbreeze remains financially strong, with a healthy balance sheet almost free of debt and a cash position to execute our strategy,” Juhl said. “Sales of Payday 3 still have great potential to improve, which is offset somewhat by continued relatively stable sales of Payday 2 and third-party publishing of, among other things, Roboquest. During the same period last year, we booked the revenue attributable to Payday 3’s launch, which makes the revenue in the comparison period uniquely high.”
Speaking of Payday 2, significantly more people are playing that game on Steam (27,553 24 hour peak) than Payday 3 (1,314 24 hour peak), despite the former being over a decade old. In September, Payday 3 director Miodrag Kovačević stepped down to work as a designer instead. Lead producer Andreas Penninger and global brand director Almir Listo were put in place to act as the “creative force” behind the game “in the interim.”
Starbreeze is still hiring for Project Baxter, meanwhile, as work on the game “continues at full speed.” “Internally, we have weekly playtests of Baxter, and active discussions with a number of industry-leading players regarding potential collaborations around Baxter’s development and launch,” Juhl said. Starbreeze said it has 191 total employees, most of which are based at its head office in Stockholm, Sweden.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Rainbow Six Siege’s next update finally adds PC and console crossplay to the competitive multiplayer shooter.
The Year 9 Season 4 update, dubbed Operation Collision Point, launches on December 3 and also makes changes to anticheat, remasters an Operator, adds Siege Cup, and tweaks gameplay balance.
The addition of crossplay means players will be able to play with friends from other platforms seamlessly, with console players able to join the PC player pool. Squads including a PC player will be automatically moved to the PC-matchmaking pool. However, PC players will not have the option to join the console matchmaking pool. Console players who play Ranked playlists with crossplay active will maintain a PC rank that is separate from their console rank, Ubisoft explained.
The anticheat updates include improved cheater detection to ensure fairness, Ubisoft said. With the arrival of PC and console crossplay, players with a Mousetrap Penalty will be forced into the PC matchmaking pool for 90 days. If crossplay is turned off, these players will be unable to join matchmaking until the option is turned back on. Additionally, matches with a detected cheater will be automatically canceled with no impact on MMR. “These changes reflect Rainbow Six Siege’s ongoing commitment to player protection,” Ubisoft added.
Related, Ubisoft has overhauled the Reputation Center to provide a clearer overview of how different actions affect player standing and thresholds for receiving warnings or penalties. Account-related information such as rank, reputation, and match replays will be concentrated in the new Career hub, with account stats coming soon, Ubisoft clarified.
Meanwhile, Blackbeard now has an upgraded Adaptable Shield gadget, and the Siege Cup beta is available to all players above Clearance Level 50. Siege Cup is Siege’s most competitive playlist, where five-player squads compete in skill-based ladder tournaments for Competitive Coins that can be used to unlock exclusive skin collections every two weeks.
And finally, Season 4 makes changes to Ballistic Shields and balancing updates for Attacking Operators Ying and Sens. The number of bullets needed to suppress Shield Operators have been reduced to add value to suppressive fire and improve Shield Operator counterplay. This allows suppression to occur sooner and last for a longer duration, Ubisoft explained. Operators will not take damage from melee attacks while shielded, but guard break intensity from melee attacks will remain the same. Ying’s rush has been changed “to encourage more precise gameplay” in addition to Sens’ R.O.U. Projectors update “that allows for more flexible and creative play.”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The weekend is officially here, and we’ve rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for Sunday, November 10, below:
65″ Samsung S90C 4K OLED Smart TV for $999.99
The Samsung S90C is a 2023 model (superseded by the S90D for 2024) and was considered one of the best OLED TVs on the market last year, superior to even the LG C3. The S90C uses Samsung’s proprietary quantum dot (QD) OLED panel. QD OLED panels are brighter than traditional OLED panels without losing the color accuracy, range, and wide-viewing angles that OLEDs are known for. Compared to a traditional LED LCD TV, an OLED TV offers superior image quality, near-infinite blacks, near-infinite contrast ratio, and near-instantaneous response times.
Save Up to 60% Off Keychron Mechanical Keyboards
Woot has quite a few different Keychron Mechanical Keyboard models on sale this weekend, which are perfect if you’re looking for a new keyboard. You can even save an extra $5 off the models on sale by using the code KEYCHRONFIVE! Be sure to get your order in while you can, as this coupon will end on Tuesday, November 19.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership for $49.99
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is the first Mario & Luigi title on Nintendo Switch, acting as the first new entry in the series in over nine years. Developed by Acquire, this is the first 3D entry in the series, with plenty of new mechanics to discover. Join Mario and Luigi on this adventure to reconnect the world of Concordia and set sail to many islands on Shipshape Island!
Save on ROG Ally at Best Buy
This weekend at Best Buy, you can save on the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme model, where it’s priced at $499.99. This handheld device is perfect for exploring your Steam library on the go, with PC Game Pass support also easily accessible. If you’re a My Best Buy Plus member, you can save an additional $50 off this deal, scoring the ROG Ally for $449.99.
Lies of P for $39.99
Amazon has Lies of P discounted to $39.99 this weekend, making now a perfect time to pick up on of 2023’s most popular games. In our 8/10 review, we said “Lies of P might not branch out particularly far from its soulslike inspiration, but like a marionette controlled by a skilled puppet master, it plays the part extremely well in a wonderfully dark fantasy world.”
Metroid Dread for $39.99
Metroid Dread was the grand return of 2D Metroid on Nintendo Switch, with developer MercurySteam teaming up with Nintendo EPD to craft the long-awaited next chapter in Samus Aran’s story. Challenging puzzles, fun boss fights, and wide exploration combine to create one of the best games on Nintendo Switch. Don’t miss your chance to pick it up at a discount this weekend.
AMD Ryzen CPU Sale
CPUs can be quite expensive, especially if you’re looking to build with the latest on the market. Amazon has a select group of Ryzen 5, 7, and 9 processors on sale this weekend, with up to 60% off. Both 5000 and 7000 series models are available, so now is a great time to score a CPU upgrade.
Save on This M2 MacBook Air
As part of Best Buy’s early Black Friday sales, you can save $250 off this M2 MacBook Air. With 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage, this is a very solid option for those looking to either upgrade their current Mac or enter the ecosystem for the first time. This model includes features like TouchID for login, a display capable of up to 500 nits of brightness, and Apple Intelligence support.
Persona 5 Royal (PC) for $19.99
Persona 5 Royal is by far one of the most beloved games of the last ten years. With a vibrant cast of characters and impressive narrative, there are well over 100 hours of gameplay here to discover. The turn-based combat system the Persona series is known for feels better than ever, with new mechanics to customize your gameplay the way you like it.
Balatro Special Edition On Sale
Amazon has Balatro Special Edition for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X|S on sale for just $19.99 this weekend. As one of the biggest games of the year, there’s never been a better time to jump in and experience this deck-building roguelike.
Outer Wilds: Archeologist Edition for $19.99
If you’ve never wandered the solar system of Outer Wilds, an experience like no other awaits. As a new recruit of Outer Wilds Ventures, you will seek the answers that await within these hand-crafted planets and moons. This package includes both Outer Wilds and Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye, the game’s expansion.
The weekend is officially here, and we’ve rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for Sunday, November 10, below:
65″ Samsung S90C 4K OLED Smart TV for $999.99
The Samsung S90C is a 2023 model (superseded by the S90D for 2024) and was considered one of the best OLED TVs on the market last year, superior to even the LG C3. The S90C uses Samsung’s proprietary quantum dot (QD) OLED panel. QD OLED panels are brighter than traditional OLED panels without losing the color accuracy, range, and wide-viewing angles that OLEDs are known for. Compared to a traditional LED LCD TV, an OLED TV offers superior image quality, near-infinite blacks, near-infinite contrast ratio, and near-instantaneous response times.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership for $49.99
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is the first Mario & Luigi title on Nintendo Switch, acting as the first new entry in the series in over nine years. Developed by Acquire, this is the first 3D entry in the series, with plenty of new mechanics to discover. Join Mario and Luigi on this adventure to reconnect the world of Concordia and set sail to many islands on Shipshape Island!
Save on ROG Ally at Best Buy
This weekend at Best Buy, you can save on the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme model, where it’s priced at $499.99. This handheld device is perfect for exploring your Steam library on the go, with PC Game Pass support also easily accessible. If you’re a My Best Buy Plus member, you can save an additional $50 off this deal, scoring the ROG Ally for $449.99.
Monster Hunter Stories Collection for $36.99
The recently released Monster Hunter Stories Collection includes both Monster Hunter Stories and Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin. This marks the first time that players can experience the first game with the Japan-exclusive Title Updates, in addition to full voice acting. Jump into the world of Monster Hunter in a new light with this collection!
Metroid Dread for $39.99
Metroid Dread was the grand return of 2D Metroid on Nintendo Switch, with developer MercurySteam teaming up with Nintendo EPD to craft the long-awaited next chapter in Samus Aran’s story. Challenging puzzles, fun boss fights, and wide exploration combine to create one of the best games on Nintendo Switch. Don’t miss your chance to pick it up at a discount this weekend.
Save on This M2 MacBook Air
As part of Best Buy’s early Black Friday sales, you can save $250 off this M2 MacBook Air. With 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage, this is a very solid option for those looking to either upgrade their current Mac or enter the ecosystem for the first time. This model includes features like TouchID for login, a display capable of up to 500 nits of brightness, and Apple Intelligence support.
Persona 5 Royal (PC) for $19.99
Persona 5 Royal is by far one of the most beloved games of the last ten years. With a vibrant cast of characters and impressive narrative, there are well over 100 hours of gameplay here to discover. The turn-based combat system the Persona series is known for feels better than ever, with new mechanics to customize your gameplay the way you like it.
What we do know is that Phil Spencer has gone on record saying he “think(s) being able to play games locally is really important”, which suggests that any Xbox handheld that comes out won’t follow the same playbook as the PlayStation Portal, which could only play games streamed from your PS5. Unfortunately, that’s about all we really know about what the handheld console would actually be, but that doesn’t mean I can’t sit here and dream about what I’d like to see out of a potential Xbox handheld, even if I do have to wait a couple years to get my hands on it.
Run Windows, But Make it Controller-Friendly
Let’s face it, Xbox consoles become more like Windows 11 every single day – hell, there’s even ads on the home screen now – so why not go all the way and make the presumptive Xbox handheld run Windows 11. This would open up the platform to hundreds of games that the Xbox Series X simply can’t run, plus, it would allow (or force) Microsoft to create a version of Windows 11 that’s navigable with a controller.
Microsoft has certainly created weird one-off UIs for Windows before. After all, this is the same company that created Windows RT, plus versions of Windows 7 and 8 that ran on Windows phones – remember those? It could be argued that all of those disparate versions of Windows were complete disasters, but as long as it’s optional, it could be a great way for Microsoft to get more Windows users, while also letting people that don’t like navigating a traditional desktop ignore the more arcane elements of Windows 11.
Make the Gamepad-Friendly Windows UI Downloadable on Any System
If Microsoft makes its Xbox handheld a Windows device with a gamepad-friendly UI – and that’s a big if – it would be super cool if it would also make it available for anyone to implement on their gaming PCs. I personally have a gaming PC set up in my living room, and I have to have a keyboard and mouse nearby to use it, especially when I’m trying to play a game that’s not on Steam. A controller-friendly Windows UI would do wonders there. It would also make using handheld gaming PCs much easier, now that more of them come running Windows 11.
Manufacturers like Asus and Lenovo have created ways to navigate the operating system with the controllers, but they’re not awesome. Essentially, both of them have ways to emulate mouse input when you’re interacting with the desktop. This works most of the time, but there have definitely been times where it’s stopped working for one reason or another and I’ve had to fumble around with a touchscreen, and Windows 11 is notoriously awful for touch displays. I’m no engineer, so I don’t know how hard it’d be to implement, but I’d love to have a toggle somewhere in Windows 11 settings to enable a ‘controller mode.’
Don’t Lock It Down to the Windows Store or Xbox Store
The main reason an Xbox handheld running on Windows 11 instead of a standalone operating system would be appealing is because it’d let you run whatever you wanted, rather than just what’s on the Xbox Store. Letting people play any game they own on Steam, Epic, or one of the countless PC gaming platforms would be incredible. I don’t know about you, but these days, I just want to play my game on whatever device I’m using at any given moment, and the more open the Xbox handheld’s OS is, the more it’ll let me do that.
Microsoft has already indulged my need to play games on a billion little devices with its Play Anywhere program that essentially lets you buy a game on PC and then play it on Xbox Series X, with your saves carrying over. The problem is that it only supports certain first-party games.
Even if Microsoft has it locked to the Xbox store by default, at least give us access to the BIOS so we can install an unlocked version of Windows ourselves. It took Microsoft a few years to learn that lesson with Windows 10S and RT, let’s hope that it applies those lessons to the Xbox handheld, too.
Quick Resume
The one thing that keeps me playing games on the Xbox Series X instead of my gaming PC is Quick Resume. There’s something to be said about having multiple games that are essentially suspended, that you can swap between at will. This is awesome when you’re stuck on a boss and you want to take a break with a different game, then come back with a clear head without losing any progress. I want that on Windows, especially for a handheld system.
Most of the time, when you put a gaming PC in sleep mode while it’s running a game, that game will still be running when you wake it up. This is essentially what happens when you tap the power button on your ROG Ally. However, it’s not perfect, and there are times where things will break in your game when you wake your system from sleep. So, the capability is technically there for something like Quick Resume, it would just need to be implemented.
Wait for More Powerful Hardware
While the AMD Z1 Extreme is awesome for handheld gaming PCs, we’re still waiting for AMD to create a next-generation version of it. What makes the Z1 special is that it’s specially engineered for the needs of a handheld gaming system. It has awesome graphics performance, but doesn’t draw too much power, allowing you to play games on battery for a few hours. The trade-off, though, is that it’s not great at moving above 1080p on medium settings in most games.
The AMD Z1 Extreme is using a Zen 4 CPU core, along with an RDNA 3 GPU core. We already have Zen 5 processors on the market, like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, but we’re still waiting for RDNA 4 to show up. With how late in the year we are, my bet is that AMD will show off its next-generation graphics tech at CES 2025. If that happens, we should see the Z2, or its equivalent, some time in mid-to-late 2025.
Microsoft being Microsoft, though, it’s entirely possible that it could work with a chipmaker like AMD to create custom silicon to bring the Xbox handheld to the next level, which would make it stand out in a market that’s becoming increasingly saturated with new handhelds all the time.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
