It’s no secret that the cost of video game hardware and computer components has been dramatically rising. We also know that the price of the next-generation Xbox console, codenamed Project Helix, is expected to be high. Microsoft has positioned Project Helix as a “very premium, very high end” device that’s akin to a powerful gaming PC. But a new report puts the projected cost of the next Xbox console in stark relief: According to Microsoft’s internal estimates, it could cost as much as $1,800.
That would obviously make it the most expensive Xbox in history, and a tough sell for a struggling brand. That’s twice the current price of a PlayStation 5 Pro, after all.
According to a new report from Fortune, Microsoft is internally projecting the price of Project Helix to cost consumers “between $1,200 and $1,800, unless Microsoft decides to subsidize the cost.” (Many game console manufacturers eat some of the cost and hope to make a profit on software and subscription sales.) The report also pegs Project Helix’s release for sometime before the holidays in 2028, later than previously expected. With component costs constantly in flux, and Xbox CEO Asha Sharma warning of increased costs, there’s no telling how much Project Helix will ultimately cost.
Microsoft has previously confirmed that Project Helix will play “your Xbox and PC games,” meaning it may be expensive for a console but modestly priced for a powerful gaming PC.
There’s a war over the next-gen Xbox handheld
Before Microsoft’s next-gen console-PC hybrid arrives in 2028, Sharma and company also plan to release a next-generation Xbox handheld device by the 2027 holiday season, according to Fortune’s story. Microsoft and Asus released the Xbox Ally handheld in October 2025. There were two versions of the handheld, the $600 Xbox Ally and the premium $1,000 Xbox Ally X, and that device is reportedly “essentially an early version of what the next Xbox is going to be like.”
But the future of that next-gen Xbox handheld sounds somewhat in doubt, as Microsoft’s Xbox and Windows teams are reportedly divided over the best way to make it. According to Fortune, the two divisions have clashed over the software designed to run Project Helix. The Windows team wants the handheld Xbox to run on “a trimmed-down version of Windows Home,” while Sharma’s team wants to “build and control its own software to get the best gaming performance.” Things have reportedly gotten so spicy that Xbox leadership threatened to kill the next-gen Xbox handheld altogether. I get it. Who wants to use Windows?
Xbox is in the midst of a wider so-called reset, which includes thousands of layoffs in the gaming division and radically reworking the structure of Xbox Game Studios and other owned studios. The gaming group recently announced other new initiatives, including Xbox XP and Xbox Labs, a new team that sounds like it will be focused on generative AI-powered game development. Xbox is also reportedly working on a massive Game Pass overhaul, that will do away with the one-size-fits-all structure in favor of a subscription that’s more à la carte.
Microsoft’s attempts to reinvigorate the Xbox business are still ongoing, and further layoffs are expected in the following months. Whether Sharma can turn things around remains to be seen, but with the staggeringly high price of Project Helix looming, her team certainly has their work cut out for them.
