Xbox Officially Has At Least One More Console Generation

2 hours ago 1

Published Mar 5, 2026, 7:36 PM EST

Eric Warner is a Journalist and Multimedia Producer based in New England with over seven years of experience producing stories for multiple print, online, radio, and video publications.

Eric has been a gaming fan ever since getting an original Xbox for Christmas in the early 2000's. From then on, he has become enthralled in the gaming world, spending thousands of hours in Halo multiplayer matches, climbing dozens of towers across the Assassin's Creed games, and 100% perfecting every single Horizon game to date.

When not writing for DualShockers Eric can typically be found playing games on his PS5, PC, and Xbox or reading sci-fi, horror, and fantasy books/comics.

Only two weeks after former CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer announced his retirement and succession by Microsoft's CoreAI President Asha Sharma, Xbox has announced the code name of their next console generation as Project Helix.

Rumors and leaked info of the production and designs of the next generation of Xbox consoles have popped up for several months now, but this is the first official confirmation of the development of the fifth generation of Xbox consoles.

In a post on X, Asha Sharma wrote, "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."

Sharma ended her post by announcing that more details on Project Helix will be revealed next week during her first Game Developers Conference, but eagle-eyed fans may already know a bit about the upcoming console based on previous reports and can predict where Xbox may be headed in terms of hardware and software.

The Possible Future of Project Helix

For a while now, many gamers have expected Xbox to lean more towards PC gaming, especially after Microsoft launched the Windows-operated handheld ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X late last year, and the push towards Xbox cloud gaming from the "This is an Xbox" campaign.

Numerous leaks and rumors have revealed that Microsoft has already been in production of their next console, with its specs suggesting that it would be more of a cross between a common home console and a gaming PC, allowing gamers to access Xbox's library as well as the PC libraries of Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Many gamers have already been able to access their PC libraries on the ROG Xbox Ally, so it seems that Project Helix will be an evolution of the Ally's base concepts but without its handheld capability, as there is currently nothing to suggest that Project Helix would be a handheld home console hybrid similar to the Nintendo Switch 2.

Project Helix will be an evolution of the Ally's base concepts but without its handheld capability

It's expected that Project Helix will launch at the end of 2027, especially to help Xbox's ever-dwindling hardware sales, though it may become a high-end gaming product due to the astronomical prices of RAM and other parts needed to produce computers and consoles, a factor that has led Sony to delay the release of the PlayStation 6.

With the Xbox Series X currently being sold for $650 and the ROG Xbox Ally X being sold at $1,000, Project Helix could realistically be sold at $800 or even over $1,000 if the economy and availability of PC parts remain the same by the end of 2027.

Project Helix already has competition as a PC home console hybrid against the upcoming Steam Machine, which itself is already estimated to cost around $800-$1,000, but Project Helix could better stand out by launching new Xbox exclusives, especially in response to Sony reportedly keeping in-house single-player titles exclusive to PlayStation hardware going forward.