When the name Project Helix was first officially surfaced by new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, it’s probably fair to say that everyone thought that it was simply the codename for the next-generation console for the Microsoft videogames division. And indeed, when Sharma first posted on X about the name, she referred to it as the “next generation console”. Recently, she said that it will be a “family of devices” instead of a singular box.
This comes as part of an interview with the BBC, which sees journalist Laura Cress ask the question “is that going to be discless?”, referring to Project Helix. That specific question was not answered, with Sharma saying in response, “we’re not sharing more on Helix … but, look, we’ve been hard at work on a great next generation and a great family of devices for Helix, and we’ll share more soon”. You can find the specific segment around the 4:44 mark. It is worth noting that Xbox has recently officially announced the capability for owners of its consoles to digitise their physical libraries.
Last year, AMD and Microsoft entered into a long-term partnership that will see the two co-engineer silicon across a “portfolio of devices”, including consoles. It was thought at the time that this meant working on devices other than the consoles as well, with the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X and its variants as an example. With what Sharma has said though, it seems as though the company’s idea of what is the next generation of consoles would in and of itself be a portfolio of devices, in addition to all the other third party additions.
All that being said, it’s still not quite clear when Project Helix will actually launch. Since we mentioned AMD, its CEO Lisa Su previously said that the next-generation Xbox is still on track for a 2027 release. And in the aforementioned BBC interview, Sharma reiterated a few already known qualities of the Helix, such as its ability to play PC games. Hopefully the division comes up with a naming scheme that’s better than the current “family” that is the Series X and S.
(Source: BBC / YouTube)
