Project Helix Price Reportedly $1,200-$1,800, With a 2028 Launch

The next Xbox console, Project Helix, has internally been projected to cost between $1,200 and $1,800 unless Microsoft decides to subsidize it, according to a Fortune profile of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma published October 20, 2026. Microsoft hasn’t announced a price or release date, and Fortune doesn’t name the source of the projection. Project Helix is the codename Xbox gave its next-generation console earlier this year.

The same report says Sharma plans to release a next-generation handheld by the 2027 holiday season and the next console by the holidays in 2028. People familiar with the matter told Fortune that engineering deadlines for Helix have been moved up by at least several months.

What Microsoft has said officially is narrower. In a March 11 Xbox Wire post, Xbox’s Jason Ronald described Helix as a first-party console designed to play Xbox console and PC games, powered by a custom AMD chip. At the same GDC keynote, Ronald said alpha versions would ship to developers starting in 2027, per Game Informer.

Fortune also describes a fight between the Xbox and Windows teams over what software Helix should run. Windows leaders wanted the upcoming handheld to use a trimmed-down version of Windows Home. A senior Xbox executive threatened to scrap the handheld rather than adopt that build, according to people briefed on the clash. Xbox now largely controls the direction of the operating system, the report says. “We can’t build Helix on our own,” Sharma told Fortune. Windows Central notes that the current Xbox Series consoles already run a customized version of Windows.

The profile carries two other reported plans. First, Xbox is preparing a Game Pass overhaul that would let players pick features à la carte, including add-ons for console-only games, cloud gaming and multiplayer, on a tiered structure. Second, after cutting 1,868 people so far toward a goal of 3,200 over the next year, Sharma is planning further layoff rounds for this month, November and January, though Fortune notes those plans can change.

A $1,200 floor would put Helix in gaming-PC territory, which fits Microsoft’s own pitch of a console that plays PC games, but it’s a hard sell next to the console prices people are used to. The subsidy caveat is the number to watch: Microsoft has two years to decide how much of that cost it eats. Sharma has already told staff Xbox needs new IP to survive, as we reported on October 14, and a pricey box makes the games lineup matter even more. Fortune points to exclusives as part of that plan: for example, Gears of War: E-Day, which launched October 6.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report