The Surface Duo Could Be Your ‘Xbox Portable’

<p>The Surface Duo by Microsoft might be a little underwhelming in terms of specs&period; However&comma; that does not mean Microsoft is ready to give up on it just yet&period; As of today&comma; the device is getting custom touch controls for <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;xbox-game-pass-going-change-video-game-industry-know&sol;">Xbox Game Pass<&sol;a> via the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;play&period;google&period;com&sol;store&sol;apps&sol;details&quest;id&equals;com&period;gamepass" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Xbox Cloud Gaming beta app<&sol;a>&period; This means you no longer need a physical controller hooked up to play games via the popular subscription service&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More than <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;xbox&period;com&sol;en-US&sol;xbox-game-pass&sol;games&num;xboxtouchcontrols" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">50 games are available<&sol;a> via Xbox Game Pass supporting these touch controls&period; At least according to Microsoft&period; This functionality allows you to turn one of the screens into a controller&period; Touch-enabled games include <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;sea-thieves-merchandise-unveiled&sol;">Sea of Thieves<&sol;a>&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;gears-5-hivebusters-review&sol;">Gears 5<&sol;a>&comma; Dragon Quest XI&comma; Slay the Spire&comma; and a lot more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote class&equals;"twitter-tweet" data-width&equals;"500" data-dnt&equals;"true">&NewLine;<p lang&equals;"en" dir&equals;"ltr">A very cool update goes live for <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;hashtag&sol;SurfaceDuo&quest;src&equals;hash&amp&semi;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">&num;SurfaceDuo<&sol;a> customers today&excl; Working with <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;Xbox&quest;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">&commat;Xbox<&sol;a> we&&num;39&semi;ve put touch controls on to the second screen&period; More than 50 games are available to play with touch for <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;XboxGamePass&quest;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">&commat;xboxGamePass<&sol;a> Ultimate Members&period; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;t&period;co&sol;ZPIqQZXxS4">pic&period;twitter&period;com&sol;ZPIqQZXxS4<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&mdash&semi; Panos Panay &lpar;&commat;panos&lowbar;panay&rpar; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;panos&lowbar;panay&sol;status&sol;1396844093133660173&quest;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">May 24&comma; 2021<&sol;a><&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;platform&period;twitter&period;com&sol;widgets&period;js" charset&equals;"utf-8"><&sol;script><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">A Portable Xbox<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>While it&&num;8217&semi;s not quite up to par with the Nintendo Switch or PS Vita&comma; it might be the closest thing to a portable Xbox we&&num;8217&semi;ll ever get&period; At least without using any additional game controller accessories or streaming devices&period; Given that emulators on the Duo have had custom controls since launch&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s about time as well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are two versions of the Xbox touch controls for the Surface Duo&period; The compose mode is similar to the Nintendo DS where one screen shows controls and the other shows the game&period; The spanned mode spreads the image across both screens in either orientation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are some problems with the Surface Duo though&period; Despite the excellent hardware and beautiful form factor&comma; it does suffer from unoptimized software and a poor camera &lpar;of which there&&num;8217&semi;s only one&rpar;&period; Microsoft did slash the price down from &dollar;1400 to &dollar;1000 in February&comma; which is a fair bit more attractive&period; Some retailers even put it on sale for as low as &dollar;600&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While a Surface Duo 2 might not be on the horizon just yet&comma; this seems like a good excuse to pick one up if you want a secondary device in addition to your phone for playing games&period; Given the number of games available via Xbox Game Pass&comma; this could easily turn your Surface Duo into a portable Xbox&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What are your thoughts&quest; Do you think the Surface Duo makes a decent &&num;8220&semi;portable Xbox&&num;8221&semi;&quest; Let us know in the comments&excl;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;inputmag&period;com&sol;gaming&sol;xbox-game-pass-ultimate-coming-to-surface-duo-with-custom-touch-controls" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener"><em>Source<&sol;em><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;