The much rumoured and often speculated portable Xbox might just be nearing reality. In a recent article Kikizo quoted Shane Kim, a Microsoft VP, as saying that an Xbox handheld is not just possible but highly likely:

“For us, it’s a matter of focusing on ‘when’, because if we chased after a mobile or handheld opportunity, we would not have the resources and ability to do things like… Project Natal. But we’re building a service in Live that… will extend to other platforms. No question about it. We understand that customers don’t want an island experience, they want to be connected to the rest of their lives.”

Kim indicates that the portable experience would be a connected one, keeping you in the realms of Xbox Live and giving you the same connectivity or greater that the 360 enjoys. This could mean that XBLA titles might make the jump to the mobile platform, you might even get a similar connected gaming experience that is part and parcel of Live including online multiplayer. This is all conjecture of course and should be taken with a pinch of salt until something a little more concrete appears, but it’s exciting to think of Microsoft entering the portable gaming arena, not only for the Xbox experience in your hands but also to put pressure on Nintendo and Sony to innovate.

When the discussion of what kind of hardware might be needed for the connected device they envisioned Kim had this to say:

“So the question will be, how do we enter into that market – do we do our own device, do we create our own phone?”

Would Microsoft make an Xbox phone? It would make another entry into an already crowded space within Microsoft itself. With Windows Mobile, Zune and Portable Xbox, Microsoft would have devices that would compete directly with each other. It’s clear from the whole Zune Vs. Windows Mobile situation that Microsoft is not as co-ordinated within its own company as it possibly should be. Bringing in Xbox mobile into the whole mess would certainly cause even more confusion on that front. That being said, if Microsoft did the smart thing and started to integrate the device teams with each other or instigate a little more cohesion between the separate teams it could be onto a winner with an Xbox/Zune phone backed up by functionality from the Windows Mobile side.

[Via Kikizo]