Fresh off of a massive leadership change that saw both Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond exit their high-profile and very public-facing roles, Xbox has begun to tease its next generation of console hardware.
Currently dubbed Project Helix, the company says that this new machine will “lead in performance” and will play both Xbox and PC games.
New Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma, took to Twitter/X to share the news, saying:
“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!”
The post also includes a short teaser visual that shows the Project Helix logo and… little else:
There are a few things to take away from this. The visuals above and the naming convention do seem to signal that Xbox is trying to revisit its “DNA” and converge its two core markets in Xbox console players and PC players.
With PC components and prices going through the roof and then some, as they are at the moment, something like this could actually play a big role in how consumers play PC games in the future – assuming building or buying a proper gaming rig becomes more and more prohibitive. On the other hand, we don’t actually know what Sharma means in the full context of this new hardware – this could by a hybrid PC/console thing, or it could involve some kind of streaming situation, it could be limited to certain games or a Game Pass subscription. We simply don’t know.
This reveal also coincides with word that PlayStation is dialing back on its PC porting efforts for first-party games, though I wouldn’t be surprised if PlayStation is looking to corner the high-spec handheld market instead with its recent “Low Power Mode” PS5 game initiative.
We’ve heard about new Xbox consoles in various leaks in the past, purporting cutting-edge hardware and, yes, the ability to play PC games. It’ll be interesting to see if anything comes out of the talks the company is planning to have with developers at GDC.
It’s no secret that Xbox has a lot of ground to claw back at this point. It’s had a pretty stellar string of fumbles over the past years, subjecting itself to high-profile cancellations and studio shutterings, splashing billions on studio and publisher buyouts with little boost to its actual game output, and struggling to position its hardware and subscription offerings in any successful way. Parent company Microsoft is also the continuing subject of boycott by the BDS Movement.