Following up on previous mentions of Project Helix being more than just a single console, during a recent internal town hall as caught by Windows Central, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has once again spoken about how the company’s next-gen offerings will be a “family of devices”. Referring to Project Helix as “Gen-10” for Xbox, Sharma said that the company plans on partnering with third parties to fill out the lineup.
“We are moving to a family of devices for Gen-10. There is not one device that fits all. We will certainly have a great console first, but we also know that many players will be on the go. There are some things that we are the best in the world to manufacture, and there are other things that we will partner on. So, we will be sharing more about that as our plans develop. The operating system is starting to look really good. We’re very excited about this.”
Sharma didn’t quite offer any concrete details on what it means for Project Helix to be a “family of devices,” however. The sentiment could be seen as a way for Xbox to repeat what it did with its current-gen console hardware by offering a Series X and a less powerful but more affordable Series S. More recent successes seen by the company in the handheld space could also indicate that we might see a Project Helix handheld as well.
If the company were to make a next-generation handheld – likely by partnering with a third-party company like Asus – it would compete directly with Sony’s own rumored handheld that will seemingly be launched alongside the PS6. However, while the handheld PS6 is expected to run all of the games that would be developed for the home console, it is unknown whether we will see a potential Project Helix handheld have similar capabilities.
Sharma last spoke about Project Helix being “a family of devices” back in August. In an interview with BBC News, Sharma brought up the fact that the company needs to look at how it can “innovate on affordability”, especially with the state of the industry leading to near-constant price hikes that could keep the best console out of the reach of many potential customers.
“We will, of course, continue to push the boundaries of performance. We’ve talked about being able to not only play your console games, but also play your PC games on your console. I think, in addition, all of the industry needs to start to innovate on affordability and efficiency. That is something that we have not had to do. But with the crisis that’s currently happening in hardware and components, it is absolutely something all of us need to be thinking about and innovating on and giving people more choice in terms of how they play their console and how they purchase their console.”
In the meantime, rumors have indicated that both Sony and Microsoft are on track to launch their next-gen consoles in late 2027. According to known leaker KeplerL2, the chips powering both of the consoles have already been “taped out”.
