As wonderful as the Steam Deck is, it’s not exactly all-powerful—it’s running on a laptop-style integrated GPU, after all. That’s what makes the Steam Deck Certified label a comfort for some of its owners. Valve tests the big game releases (and many others besides) for compatibility, and shows it right on the Steam store page. It looks like Microsoft may be cooking up something similar.
Yesterday, the official Asus ROG account on Instagram posted a promo image of the upcoming ROG Xbox Ally handheld with the new Gears of War Reloaded, saying that the game is “officially ROG Xbox Ally certified.” This is the first we’re hearing of any such certification, leading with an “official” designation and tagging the Xbox Gamescom presentation to boot. According to previous Microsoft announcements, the ROG Xbox Ally will be on display at the European trade show, and a date and price for the upcoming hardware are expected there.
Microsoft and its partner Asus are positioning the ROG Xbox Ally as a true brother—or perhaps a close cousin—to the Xbox console. But no matter what the marketing says, the ROG Xbox Ally is not an Xbox in the technical sense because it runs Windows, like most handheld gaming PCs that aren’t made by Valve. Windows 11 has been a pain point for the Steam Deck’s competition, unable to beat the Linux-based SteamOS for smooth operation and efficiency, even if it can run a wider selection of games. That said, the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X will get a streamlined, game-focused interface for Windows, which will come to other handheld gaming PCs starting in 2026.
A system for certifying new and existing PC games for hardware would certainly be helpful… but it would also be harder to implement, given that there’s so much variation in Windows-based handhelds. Valve can test and certify games for the Steam Deck thanks to its almost entirely integrated hardware. But the same game might not run on, say, the new ROG Xbox Ally X and the original ROG Ally (now two years old) and MSI’s Claw series with its Intel chips instead of AMD.
KitGuru seems to think that a wider certification system is coming, but I hasten to point out that this is just a promotional post, and one for a Microsoft-published game, too. It’s possible that this “official” certification is nothing more than Microsoft clearing the new Gears of War game to be demoed on the ROG Xbox Ally hardware at Gamescom. And we still don’t have verified info for the most important factor in this new handheld’s launch: its price tag.
