Microsoft expects future Xbox console to be codenamed Project Helix will cost the buyer between 1200 and 1800 dollars.These figures are cited by Fortune with reference to the company’s internal forecasts.There is only one caveat: Microsoft can take on part of the cost and sell the console at a loss.No one has officially confirmed the price yet.
For comparison, the Xbox Series X with a disc drive costs $799.99 in the US after the latest price increase.Microsoft has little headroom for subsidies: Fortune estimates that its gaming division operates at a profit margin of about three percent.
The portable Xbox will come out before the big console
According to the publication, Microsoft wants to release a home console by the holiday season of 2028, and a portable device a year earlier, by the end of 2027.The engineering timeline for Helix has been pushed forward by at least several months, and teams are having to accelerate.Asha Sharma said that the company connects AI to engineering tasks and performance optimization, but not for the sake of fashion.
Fortune does not specify who will make the portable, Microsoft itself or a partner like Asus.Sharma has already called Helix family of devices, so the pocket version may well be the first of them.
Windows vs Xbox
The most interesting part of the material concerns the dispute within Microsoft.The Windows division insisted that the laptop run on a stripped-down Windows Home.Sharma's team wanted their own system, tailored for games.According to Fortune's sources, it got to the point that one of the Xbox executives threatened to cancel the entire device if Windows was imposed on him.
The conflict appears to have been resolved, and the direction of the operating system is now determined by the Xbox team.Sharma says the divisions continue to work together because Helix can't be built alone.
Another detail came from the AMD presentation.Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet has confirmed that Helix will receive the next generation of AMD's upscaler called FSR Diamond.And the current version is FSR 4.1 will soon reach Xbox Series X and S.
Game Pass will become a designer
Fortune writes that Microsoft is preparing a major overhaul of Game Pass.Subscribers will be able to assemble the set themselves: separately connect console games, cloud gaming and network play, and the entire system will be divided into levels.Former employees told the publication that subscriptions ate up sales of expensive Microsoft games in the first weeks after release, and different teams within the company were chasing contradictory indicators.
It is not yet clear how the cost of the subscription will change and whether new items will remain in it on the day of release.
There are three more waves of layoffs ahead
According to Fortune, Sharma plans three more rounds of layoffs: in October, November and January.How many people they will affect and whether they are included in the 3,200 cuts announced in the summer is not specified.Sharma took over as head of Xbox in February and has not previously worked in the gaming industry.In six months, she managed to reduce the price of Game Pass Ultimate, transfer Halo to Activision and restructure the studios.
For now this is just a forecast
All figures are taken from internal calculations, which Fortune was told about by sources.Microsoft has not announced a price or release date for Helix.But the picture is clear: first a portable one in 2027, then an expensive home console in 2028 and a more flexible subscription in between.The company promised to reveal more about Helix before the end of the year, and there's good reason: Xbox celebrates its 25th anniversary in November.
Sign in or create an account to leave a comment.
Be the first to share your thoughts.