A detailed Fortune profile of Asha Sharma, the new head of Xbox, shares new information about the company’s hardware plans, possible pricing, and internal changes. It also covers Project Helix, which has drawn a lot of attention.
Fortune reports that Project Helix is Xbox’s next-generation console, one that will also run PC games. The magazine says the company’s next hardware release is expected to be a handheld, due for the 2027 holiday season, with the full console to follow in 2028.
Having several releases is not a big surprise. In a separate interview in August, Sharma indicated that Project Helix would include multiple gaming devices. The price stands out more. Fortune reports that the console is currently expected to cost between $1,200 and $1,800, unless Microsoft chooses to subsidize the hardware.
If the console does launch at that price, the report suggests it could make it harder for Sharma to reach her goal of serving more than 1 billion people daily. The estimate may also reflect rising prices for RAM and other components, which have been pushed up by demand from AI development.
Fortune notes that a lot could still change over the next two years. The high figure could be a way of setting expectations so that a lower final price looks generous on the part of Microsoft and Xbox. It could also be accurate, in which case Xbox would face a difficult task growing beyond its reported 100 million daily active users. The report also raises the question of whether customers would pay that much for hardware from a struggling brand when the Steam Machine is cheaper at the moment.
The profile also includes a claim from anonymous sources that Xbox may change Game Pass to an à la carte model. Console-only games, cloud gaming, and multiplayer would each be sold as add-ons.
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