ASUS ROG Xbox Ally arrives October 16 complete with Valve-like Handheld Compatibility scheme

Microsoft has revealed that the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally (and Ally X) will be on shelves across the globe on October 16 - though we still don't have an official price.

A few more details were revealed about the gaming portable, though, the most noteworthy of which is that it'll come with an equivalent to Valve's Steam Deck Verified list of games.

It's called the Handheld Compatibility Program and Microsoft shared a quick trailer for the scheme on YouTube that you can see above.

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The broad idea is to test popular games and verify that they run well on the Xbox Ally, with its custom, gaming-focused take on Windows 11, taking the guesswork out of whether any given title will be okay on the handheld.

Games rated as 'Handheld Optimized' are fully ready to play - in terms of controls, interface legibility, clarity of icons, and so on - and there's a second tier of 'Mostly Compatible' efforts that might need 'minor' changes to the game's settings to give the best results.

There's a separate rating for performance, which is the Windows Performance Fit indicator. So, gamers will be looking for something that is rated as Handheld Optimized and has a performance badge of 'should play great' (or 'should play well').

Microsoft will be busy verifying games on a rolling basis, so just as with Valve, you'll find more games are rated as fully compatible over time.

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AI powers

Automatic Super Resolution is also coming to the Xbox Ally X with its peppier AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip. This uses the NPU that this CPU packs, and it's a neat touch as this is system-wide upscaling.

Another AI feature for the higher-end handheld - and plenty of these extras are expected - is having AI automatically capture gameplay highlights, producing short replay videos you can share to show off your gaming prowess to friends.

Microsoft also highlights advanced shader delivery as a nifty addition. This is billed as a feature that preloads shaders (during the download of the title), so games which support this will launch up to 10x faster, Microsoft claims, as well as running more smoothly. There's also an added benefit in terms of battery life which won't be hit as hard on the first play of the game (as the shader work is already done).

However, as noted, the game will need to support this functionality, though Microsoft promises more developers will get on board over time, much the same as with the compatibility verification program.

Initial availability for these handhelds includes the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, and a whole raft of other countries across Europe and elsewhere.

Pricing is rumored to be $549.99 and $899.99 in the US for the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X respectively, and pre-ordering should kick off soon enough. That rumor came from a source that correctly predicted the release date, it's worth noting - although the fear is the revelation of pricing has been delayed due to uncertainty around US tariffs (meaning it may yet be more expensive than forecast).