Folks have been speculating about Microsoft’s plans for the subsequent Xbox for over a yr now and the corporate’s new gaming CEO simply went forward and tweeted them out. Lately appointed Xbox boss Asha Sharma confirmed the codename for the {hardware} and, much more importantly, that it’ll certainly play PC video games. However what does that imply?
“Nice begin to the morning with Group Xbox, the place we talked about our dedication to the return of Xbox together with Challenge Helix, the code title for our subsequent era console,” Sharma posted on X on Thursday. “Challenge Helix will lead in efficiency and play your Xbox and PC video games. Wanting ahead to chatting about this extra with companions and studios at my first GDC subsequent week!” The subsequent era of Xbox console: Challenge Helix pic.twitter.com/YQUrCgCb9J — Xbox (@Xbox) March 5, 2026 A brief teaser video that didn’t present any additional information was additionally posted. Microsoft is attempting to fill the void left by Phil Spencer’s current retirement and Sarah Bond’s shock resignation with the great vibes of a superb previous next-gen console hype practice. However after releasing its exclusives to PlayStation 5 and alluring gamers to surrender their video games and {hardware} for subscriptions and cloud streaming as an alternative, will anybody nonetheless be round to care? Challenge Helix will flip Xbox right into a gaming PC Microsoft beforehand promised that the next-gen Xbox could be essentially the most highly effective technical leap in gaming ever, although the one who stated these phrases is not on the firm. The corporate’s additionally been banging the drum of letting you are taking your gaming library in every single place and breaking down the partitions between platforms. A unified storefront throughout PC, console, and cellular appears like a dream situation, nevertheless it’s an enormous technical problem.
The corporate’s first stab at this new PC-centric, multiplatform imaginative and prescient got here final fall with the ROG Ally X which tries to make it seamless to go from enjoying Sport Go video games to downloading Steam video games. In observe, it’s loads wonkier than most individuals would love, in no small half as a consequence of how horrible Home windows is. Will Challenge Helix have an answer to the tech large’s more and more enshittified OS?
As you’ll be able to see, I’ve a variety of questions. Hopefully a few of them get answered subsequent week at GDC. Jason Ronald, Xbox’s head of next-gen tech, is giving a chat on the identical convention the place final yr he first teased the ROG Ally X. I’ll be there too, hopefully getting some extra detailed solutions. In response to AMD, Microsoft’s chip associate for the subsequent Xbox, Challenge Helix is aiming to ship someday in 2027. Not less than if the present RAM disaster doesn’t intervene.
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