It’s better not to announce a new product on April 1st. Otherwise, potential customers could take it for an April Fool’s joke. Apparently Asus didn’t care and showed a Handehld PC. For all skeptics, Asus posted another small announcement of the ROG Ally on social media on April 3rd.
The ROG Ally is real and it really doesn’t look bad
With the words “It’s legit! Stay tuned for more,” Asus shared the image of the ROG Ally, a bona fide Steam Deck competitor. On the picture itself it says again: “This is not an April Fool’s joke.” And when a user asked again if this was an April Fool’s joke, GOG Global replied with a resounding “no”. Even at best buy the chic, white device is already listed.
Some data is still missing for a correct and official announcement. There is still no information about the price or the built-in hardware of the ROG Ally. But there is already a first official trailer:
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The ROG Ally should run with Windows and be particularly quiet. It should also be able to play games from different platforms and libraries, such as Xbox Game Pass, and even stream them to larger screens. Even AAA titles shouldn’t be a problem for the handheld PC.
A competitor can also be a good thing for the Steam Deck
“At ROG, we’re always pushing the boundaries of gaming and constantly striving for better performance in smaller devices,” Asus writes in the video description. “From convertible laptops, tablets, to controllers and even smart lenses, nothing has ever stopped us from going further and harder.”
“Now we bundle all our know-how into one single device: Introducing ROG ALLY, ROG’s first handheld gaming PC!”
So it all looks like Valve’s Steam Deck is finally getting its first real competitor. But that shouldn’t be a problem for Gabe Newell. in one IGN interview from the summer of 2021 he said that he even wanted competition. After all, a larger market is more stable than short-term hype, according to his point of view.
