Shortly after having opened up the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handheld gaming PCs for pre-orders and revealing their pricing, Microsoft has now taken to social media to announced that pre-orders have already been sold out on the Xbox store worldwide. However, Asus still seems to have some in stock ready for pre-orders, so its online outlets aren’t completely out of stock yet.
“The hype is real! ROG Xbox Ally X preorders are sold out on the Xbox Store worldwide,” announced Microsoft through the official social media account for Xbox.
Pre-orders for both of the handhelds had just gone live earlier today. The ROG Xbox Ally has been priced at $599.99, while the more powerful Xbox Ally X is priced at $999.99. Pre-orders have been made available in 38 countries so far. For more details, check out our coverage.
The almost immediate success of the handheld gaming systems would certainly explain why VP of Xbox gaming devices and ecosystem, Jason Ronald, had spoken about being excited for this partnership between Microsoft and Asus last month. In an interview, Ronald spoke about the two companies being able to combine their strengths in the development of the handheld systems.
“We’re just really excited about the partnership with Asus, we’ve found an ideal partner to bring their strengths with our strengths, and for us we’re really focused on just growing the category overall,” said Ronald.
He also went on to talk about the Handheld Compatibility Program that Microsoft had originally unveiled at Gamescom would be made available to any handheld gaming system maker running on Windows, since the program is launching for Windows as a whole alongside the ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X.
“So even just with the Handheld Compatibility Program, it’s going to launch alongside the Xbox Ally but it’ll apply to all devices in the category,” he said. “Y’know, who knows what the future entails, but we’re just really excited about the partnership right here.”
While pre-orders might have been successful, the ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X will be hitting store shelves worldwide on October 16. The handheld system marks a major turning point for Microsoft and Windows as a whole since it will be the first time we get to see a full-fledged desktop-tier version of the operating system that has been optimised to be also usable with a controller, and without a mouse or keyboard.
Microsoft had also confirmed that a number of enhancements had been made to Windows 11 for the ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X that would make the operating system even better for running games. Among these enhancements is the Xbox Fullscreen Experience, which doesn’t load any processes that aren’t required for gaming, saving more than 2 GB of RAM in the process which can instead be allocated to more demanding games.
For more details about the ROG Xbox Ally handheld gaming systems, check out our primer on everything you might have missed from its original announcement. Also check out how Microsoft Gaming boss Phil Spencer believes that the Xbox Ally’s development led to the “tightest collaboration” so far between the gaming and Windows teams.
