Microsoft shared details about its upcoming Project Helix, its next line of Xbox products, and confirmed that it will focus on both mobile devices and traditional-style consoles. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma reportedly said “Gen-10” will be a family of devices, a rumor that has been circulating since before the Project Helix announcement this spring. The consoles are also said to be the first to offer PC gaming, but we’ve yet to get any real specifications demonstrating that capability. It could be said that the genie has been out of the bottle for some time in granting console manufacturers their desire to further expand product offerings. Both Sony and Microsoft have offered multiple versions of their current gen of products with either digital only or feature optical drives for physical media. Meanwhile, Nintendo went all in on mobile gaming with the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 that have been extremely popular among families, allowing gamers to dock the mobile device for living room play. Throw all this together, and you pretty much end up with what Project Helix is shaping up to be. The following transcript was confirmed by Windows Central as being from the latest town hall meeting.
“We are moving to a family of devices for Gen-10. There is not one device that fits all. We will certainly have a great console first, but we also know that many players will be on the go. There are some things that we are the best in the world to manufacture, and there are other things that we will partner on. So, we will be sharing more about that as our plans develop. The operating system is starting to look really good. We’re very excited about this.”
– Asha Sharma, Xbox CEO
Sharma also seemingly confirmed that Xbox will continue to work with partners, as it did for the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, to produce Xbox gaming handhelds rather than commit to designing them inhouse while it focuses on console manufacturing. This is extrapolated speculation from Sharma’s statement, but it does fit the mold for current processes employed by Xbox and makes more sense than trying to reinvent the wheel. It also sounds like Xbox is continuing to refine its OS for the next-gen devices, something it has touted over the last year as it works on bridging the gap between console users, gaming handhelds, and PC gamers. Xbox still has an uphill climb, and layoffs can only go so far to make the books look attractive to investors, so dialing in all the details for its next line of products, which are not expected until 2027, or possibly 2028, will be crucial to its survival.
Discussion (1 reply)
Join Discussion →technically the handheld soc could do double duty as a Series S2 — when placed inside a NUC (PC steam machine competitor)
the handheld itself would be power & memory constrained. but in an NUC form it would have enough power to beat the current series X.
major issue is the memory bandwidth limit. the shared FP10 socket would be widely available by this Jan but limited to lpddr5x. hence cheap but memory bandwidth constrained
the more premium FP12 socket (intended for halo SoCs) has LPDDR6 — but comes later, & probably in limited varieties, configurations; hence pricier than FP10
bottom line the handheld SoC in an power unconstrained NUC format in a custom lpddr6 motherboard should be able to match/beat the PS5 pro (9060xt). if subsidized by Microsoft then it could be cheaper than the PS5 pro too !!