Xbox

Sarah Bond addresses $1,000 price of ROG Ally X: “The price was determined by Asus”

Xbox looks to offer more innovation in gaming devices, with Bond revealing a strong future hardware strategy.

Update: Oct 21st, 2025 01:14 CEST

Xbox president Sarah Bond has addressed the controversy surrounding the ROG Xbox Ally X’s $1,000 price point, clarifying that the final retail cost was determined by its hardware partner, Asus. While the ROG Ally handhelds are Xbox-branded and feature deep integration with the Xbox library and Game Pass, they are manufactured and priced by Asus.

Speaking to Variety, Bond explained that Asus used its “insight into the market, into the feature set, into what people want, to determine the ultimate prices of the devices.” Despite the initial criticism over the high cost—which was also complicated by the impact of US tariffs on imported electronics—Bond noted that launch sales had not been affected, stating that the demand for the devices has been strong.

Sarah Bond addresses $1,000 price of ROG Ally X: “The price was determined by Asus”

“We are 100 percent looking at making things in the future,” Xbox President Sarah Bond told Variety last week. “We have our next-gen hardware in development. We’ve been looking at prototyping, designing. We have a partnership we’ve announced with AMD around it, so that is coming. What we saw here was an opportunity to innovate in a new way and to bring gamers another choice, in addition to our next-gen hardware. We are always listening to what players and creators want. When there is demand for innovation, we’re going to build it.”

Innovation and Future Hardware Plans

The launch of the ROG Ally handhelds represents a broader strategy for Xbox focused on providing players with more choice and flexibility. Xbox corporate vice president of gaming devices, Roanne Sones, emphasized this philosophy, stating, “At the end of the day, that’s what should be guiding us, not some weird boundary,” she recently told The Hollywood Reporter. This suggests a commitment to supporting a diverse ecosystem of devices, whether first-party or through partnerships,

Bond framed the ROG Ally X as an innovative choice that sits “side by side with this collaboration that we have with ASUS” and their next-gen console plans, demonstrating a clear willingness to support new form factors based on consumer demand.