Microsoft’s new CEO, Asha Sharma, who took over for the previous long-serving Xbox boss Phil Spencer last week, following his retirement, has confirmed the next-generation Xbox hardware that is currently in development. Codenamed Project Helix, it was also confirmed that the machine will run PC games, something that has long been rumored of the hardware.
Sharma took to X today, posting about this upcoming console. She stated:
Great start to the morning with Team Xbox, where we talked about our commitment to the return of Xbox, including Project Helix, the code name for our next-generation console. Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games. Looking forward to chatting about this more with partners and studios at my first GDC next week!
While she has confirmed that PC games will be playable on the device, there is no clarification as of yet if these will be available through a dedicated service. The biggest rumor for the console has been that it would allow you to install PC distribution services like Steam on the console itself. What was stated of note is that a broader announcement is planned for the upcoming GDC Conference, which will begin on March 9th.
This confirmation also comes shortly after rumors began to surface that Sony plans to pull back on their PC strategy, with it being suggested that they had canceled plans to port Ghost of Yotei to PC and that the upcoming game Saros, has no plans for a PC release. While there were multiple reasons, including the lackluster PC sales of first-party titles, another reason given was a fear of the Xbox console having access to all these titles via its rumored PC game support.
Microsoft did not choose to release a mid-generation console upgrade like Sony did with the PlayStation 5 Pro. Xbox Insider Jez Corden has suggested that we could see the next Xbox release as early as 2027. Sony, on the other hand, has been suggested to be pushing their next-generation console to 2028 or 2029, amid ongoing part shortages and price increases. It remains to be seen if Project Helix will be affected in the same way.
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