The console wars aren’t over quite yet.
Microsoft Gaming recently confirmed, in a surprisingly low-key social media post, that a next generation console is coming in the near future, codenamed “Project Helix”.
With sparse details and an incredibly short announcement, this news might have come to quell some fears over the future of Microsoft Gaming after the recent – and sudden – departure of Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond and the installment of Asha Sharma as the new CEO. Here’s everything we know about Project Helix, shortly following its announcement.
Project Helix release date
As of now, there’s no official release date for Project Helix. That said, excitable fans can look back on Xbox’s history of console teasers to make an educated guess for the future.
The Xbox One X was teased in summer 2016 – then codenamed Project Scorpio – with a final release date of November 2017. Following that was the Xbox Series X gen, which was teased as Project Scarlett in summer 2019, with its final launch landing in November 2020. With these in mind, it’s a safe educated guess to assume that Project Helix will arrive roughly a year and a half from now, in fall of 2027. That gives players plenty of time to save up, which might be necessary, given the high predictions coming from industry experts.
Project Helix price
Like the release date, there’s been no official communication from Xbox regarding the price players should expect for their next console. Any prices floating around online are, at best, informed ‘guess-timates’ on what seems most likely given the price of competitor consoles and the ballooning price of RAM.
With the announcement including the fascinating tidbit “play your Xbox and PC games”, Project Helix would need to function like a gaming PC, which might bump up the price due to the hardware necessary. Again, with the console likely more than a year away, there’s no way to confidently predict a price.
What we can say with confidence is that the price will be high, given the former Xbox president stated the next console will be “very premium, very high end”, words that struck fear in the wallets of gamers everywhere. Console in the current generation have steadily increased in price over the past few years, which points to Project Helix easily clearing the $650 price the Xbox Series X sits at now.
Will Project Helix play PC games?
Yes, Microsoft Gaming has confirmed that their next console will “lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games”. How exactly that will work hasn’t been revealed, but earlier statements from Sarah Bond about the next Xbox console have hinted that it will use Windows.
This interesting approach isn’t entirely surprising following the “This is an Xbox” campaign, in which the company tried to position the brand as some sort of ephemeral concept of gaming. Alongside the recent change to move away from exclusive titles, it seems Xbox is competing with PCs now instead of PlayStation or Nintendo to try and make their brand ubiquitous across all of gaming rather than settling for a portion of console players.
This Windows approach does come with a lot of freedom – players could use any game launcher to access an endless number of games – but the downside may come with the price, as high-end PCs often cost thousands of dollars.
What games will be on Project Helix?
No games have been confirmed for Project Helix, but given its current status as some sort of unholy union between console and PC, the list of games for this future console are potentially endless.
It’s possible that the next Xbox won’t have any exclusive titles, but it does seem likely that at least some Xbox mainstays will appear for the next generation, like the upcoming Halo title. Beyond that, any other upcoming AAA games will surely make an appearance, like Grand Theft Auto 6 or the next Divinity game.
