Between Valve’s New Steam Machine and the multiple new PC handhelds released just this year (MSI Claw 8, Lenovo Legion Go S, ROG Ally X), PC gaming is more popular than ever. In the ASUS Q3 Investor Conference presentation (h/t IGN), the Taiwanese manufacturer details how it is facing a short supply of the ROG Ally in the face of unexpected demand. The company states that it will be working with suppliers to ramp up production further.
Unfortunately, we don’t have specific, comprehensive sales figures from ASUS yet. It is surprising that the $1000 price for the ROG Ally X was not a deterrent for many gamers. As uncovered by veteran industry analyst Daniel Ahmed, ASUS expects to generate $96m – $160m from the Ally line this quarter.
Finally, Some Good Xbox-Related News
The entire “This is an Xbox” marketing campaign has been hilariously aggressive, with Xbox really hammering home the point that they’re not just a console manufacturer anymore. A few weeks back, I talked about the new “Play Anywhere” Xbox strategy and how Xbox is positioning itself as more of a publisher. To an extent, the ROG Ally X echoes that idea strongly.
In case you’re unfamiliar, the ROG Ally X is a handheld gaming device that runs the Xbox Fullscreen Experience on top of Windows. This full-screen experience sits on top of Windows and mimics the experience of a dedicated handheld console. It thrives on Xbox Game Pass, through which you can play hundreds of games every month with a subscription.
The advantage here is that the Xbox Fullscreen Experience uses less RAM, which enables better performance. You still have to deal with Windows to the same extent (driver updates aren’t any better on this thing), but it’s much better than facing Windows head-on. But, if you want to hop into Windows, you can do that to play your Steam, Epic, and GoG libraries. Pretty neat.
Initially, many thought this partnership between Xbox and ASUS was set to fail because of the pricing. The cheaper ROG Xbox Ally starts at $600, but the more powerful ROG Ally X sits at $1000. But context matters here, especially when competing handhelds from MSI and Lenovo cost even more. Eurogamer has a great, nuanced review that I recommend reading.
Circling back to the sales, here’s what ASUS itself had to say on the success of the Ally X:
“Since its [ROG Ally X] launch, we see the market response for it has been extremely positive, particularly, there has been an appetite for the premium higher-end models, exceeding our expectations.”
