Hyderabad, March 7: The next generation of the Xbox gaming console will play both Xbox and PC games, announced Asha Sharma, the new Microsoft Gaming CEO, who took over the reins from Phil Spencer last month. The new boss confirmed that the codename of the upcoming console is “Project Helix”.
“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,” Sharma said in a post on X.
“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,” she added.
The official Xbox account on X also posted the name with a seven-second video, showcasing a logo for the project, which could also end up becoming the new icon for next-gen Xbox gaming consoles
Microsoft has been hinting towards a future where the lines between PC and Xbox titles get blurred to the point of assimilation. The company’s “This is an Xbox” campaign already redefines the definition of the console, asserting that any device capable of streaming or playing Xbox games is indeed an “Xbox”, including smart TVs, laptops, and even smartphones.
Windows handheld devices like the Xbox Ally, while currently allowing gamers to play only PC games, the Xbox library of games has been confirmed to soon become compatible with these machines. The upcoming Xbox console will be similar to these handheld devices in this regard, offering an open platform to run stores like Steam while also giving Xbox players access to the vast library of console games.
With PC game compatibility, Project Helix will encroach upon the territory of the Steam Machine, a portable 6-inch cube, running SteamOS and offering access to PC games via Steam Library. However, while the Steam Machine also markets itself as a full-fledged PC where you can install your own apps and another operating system, like Windows and Linux, we don’t know whether Project Helix will allow such versatility.
In any case, the console-PC hybrid Project Helix could mark the “return of Xbox”, as the new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma believes.
After assuming her new role, Sharma acknowledged in her first memo that gaming now lives across devices and not within the limits of any single piece of hardware, which is probably why Xbox is pushing the boundaries and also making its games available on competitors’ platforms.
“We will celebrate our roots with a renewed commitment to Xbox, starting with the console which has shaped who we are,” she said.
Microsoft has yet to share details about the launch of Project Helix. AMD earlier hinted that they would be able to support a 2027 launch for an Xbox gaming console, but it would be no surprise if the launch gets delayed to 2029, considering PlayStation is also mulling to launch its next-gen console as late as 2029 due to the RAM crisis brought upon by the world’s obsession with artificial intelligence and the data centres where the technology resides.
