The European Union is now pushing for user-replaceable batteries to be a mandatory feature in portable gaming consoles after successfully making Apple comply with USB-C standards.

What are these New Regulations?

New regulations are mandating that future consumer gadgets like gaming handhelds must feature user-replaceable batteries by 2027. If this law comes into effect, we can expect successors of the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck to launch with a major design change over their predecessors. The European Council has stated that all portable batteries for appliances, light transport vehicles (e-bikes), and other devices should be removable by the users.

As per the official press release, the EU aims to reduce the environmental impacts of discarded batteries, encourage recycling, and reuse old batteries for longer. It adds that “a portable battery shall be considered readily removable by the end-user where it can be removed from a product with the use of commercially available tools, without requiring the use of specialised tools, unless provided free of charge with the product”.

Next-generation handheld gaming consoles will be impacted by new regulations. However, these rules will only apply to future releases, not existing models such as the ASUS ROG Ally. The 2027 deadline is still far away, and we can anticipate pushback from tech companies that produce these portable consoles.