Xbox president says ASUS set the ROG Xbox Ally X's $1,000 price tag

When the price was finally revealed for the new flagship ROG Xbox Ally X gaming handheld collaboration, $1,000 USD, there was understandably some controversy for what was being marketed as the first Xbox gaming handheld. Naturally, for those who are familiar with the device, it's PC-first, with a custom Xbox-optimized version of Windows 11 designed to improve both performance and usability with access to a deep library of games on a variety of services and platforms.

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One of the reasons for the handheld's high price, which is notably more expensive than an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 Pro console, is its use of the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme, which includes 16 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units alongside custom AI hardware. With Microsoft and the Xbox team seemingly spearheading the announcement and marketing for the ROG Xbox Ally X (and the more affordable and less powerful baseline ROG Xbox Ally model), the assumption is that Microsoft set the price point for the handheld.

And with that, the high $999.99 price tag, much like the recent price hikes for dedicated Xbox console hardware, was the direct result of current market and economic conditions. Well, turns out that was not the case, with Xbox president Sarah Bond (via Variety) saying that when it came to setting the price, "it really was ASUS, because this is their hardware."

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Adding, "That is all of their insight into the market, into the feature set, into what people want, to determine the ultimate prices of the devices." This implies that when it comes to the ROG Xbox Ally X, Microsoft chose ASUS as a partner for the debut of its PC gaming handheld version of Xbox-first Windows 11, and wasn't that involved in what could have ended up being called the ROG Ally 2.

But that's not the case, with Sarah Bond confirming that the Xbox team helped develop the console-like controller feel for the new ROG Xbox Ally handhelds. It also led the charge for creating a custom Xbox and controller-friendly version of Windows 11 for the device, which will be rolled out to other non-Xbox-branded handhelds next year. Also, in the interview, Sarah Bond says that the Xbox team wanted to ensure that there was a more affordable model, indicating that it knew the flagship Xbox Ally X would retail for a lot of money.

"We want to make sure that people have a choice," Sarah Bond says. "We want to make sure there's an option for the power players who want the latest innovations, that want to push the edge of what's possible, the most demanding players. And then, if someone is looking for PC gaming on the go, they're a casual gamer, they're a gaming enthusiast, then there's Xbox Allys for them. Giving multiple choices for people, so we can actually meet people where they are."

That said, in the interview, Sarah Bond does say that even with the $1,000 price tag, the flagship ROG Xbox Ally X has sold well, "We sold out on the Xbox Store. We sold really quickly at a number of other places around the world," Bond said. "I feel really good about the value that we're giving gamers for the price, based off the reception to the hardware."