Rumour: Microsoft & ASUS Wanted To ‘Further Subsidise’ The Price Of The ROG Xbox Ally

“They obviously couldn’t do it for whatever reason”

Back in August at Gamescom 2025, we found out the official release date for the upcoming ROG Xbox Ally handheld(s), but Microsoft chose to avoid revealing the price or beginning pre-orders at the time during to a “challenging” macro-economic climate.

This decision was seemingly made at the last minute, and that led to Best Buy accidentally leaking prices for the US market – it was suggested the ROG Xbox Ally would cost $549.99 and the Ally X would cost $899.99.

Ultimately, these wouldn’t turn out to be the final prices. Last week, Microsoft officially announced that the ROG Xbox Ally will be $599.99 and the Ally X will be $999.99 – and pre-orders are now live in the US and across the world.

So, what happened here? Well, we know that Microsoft has increased the price of the Xbox Series X and S in the US specifically this month, so it stands to reason that the ROG Xbox Ally would get a price bump ahead of launch as well.

Despite this, a rumour that originated from the Xbox Era podcast and was later corroborated by the ever-reliable Tom Henderson at Insider Gaming, suggests that Microsoft and ASUS actually wanted to “further subsidise” the price of the ROG Xbox Ally – but obviously that hasn’t ended up working out.

It seems this was based on feedback to the European prices that first leaked in June, and those prices actually haven’t changed at all since then – they were leaked as €599.99 and €899.99, and that’s what they turned out to be.

Everything here should be taken with a pinch of salt as always, but clearly Microsoft wanted to make these devices as cheap as possible. It’s a “challenging” climate as Team Xbox has mentioned right now though, so it seems MS and ASUS couldn’t go quite as low as they wanted to.

Nevertheless, these look set to be amazing handhelds when they arrive on October 16th, and we’re hopeful (and dare we say, quietly confident?) that they’ll be worth the money. We’ll find out for sure in just a few weeks’ time!

Are you happy with the price of the ROG Xbox Ally? What’s the sweet spot in your opinion? Tell us below.

Fraser is the News Editor at Pure Xbox, where he spends his time reporting on the biggest stories in the world of Xbox and beyond.

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