Metal Gear and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima has posted a picture on social media which cryptically hints at the idea that he might already be working with Project Helix in some capacity. In his post, Kojima posed alongside Microsoft Gaming’s new CEO Asha Sharma and Xbox’s chief content officer Matt booty. While he hasn’t mentioned anything aside from their names, Kojima also seems to be holding a box labelled “Xbox for Kojima”.
Sharma also retweeted Kojima’s post, noting that meeting him was a “Wonderful way to close my first 60 days,” referring to the recent start to her tenure as head of Microsoft Gaming. While Kojima’s main purpose behind visiting Sharma and Booty at the Xbox offices likely has more to do with his upcoming horror game—OD—the box indicates that he also got a special gift from the company.
It is worth noting that a development kit for Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox would likely be far larger than the relatively small box held by Kojima in the photo. Along with this, kits for Project Helix are also unlikely to be ready yet. Xbox’s vice president, Jason Ronald, had even confirmed last month that alpha versions of the Project Helix software development kit (SDK) will be shipping out to developers in 2027.
“Project Helix is powered by a custom AMD [system on chip] and co-designed for the next generation of DirectX and FSR to unlock what comes next…It delivers an order of magnitude leap in ray tracing performance and capability, integrates intelligence directly into the graphics and compute pipeline, and drives meaningful gains in efficiency, scale, and visual ambition. The result is more realistic, immersive, and dynamic worlds for players.”
As for Project Helix, Xbox’s general manager of portfolio and programs Chris Charla had spoken about how developers would need to start working on Xbox and PC today in order to appropriately prepare for the next-generation console. “We’re working hard so developers can make one Xbox build in the future and it’ll run on their Project Helix console, on PC and on streaming and cloud surfaces like smart TVs and other devices,” he said.
“Someone looking to be ready for next-gen with Xbox should be developing for Xbox console today, developing for Xbox on PC, and supporting Xbox Play Anywhere,” he continued. “That’ll put you in pole position for the next generation and ensure your Xbox on PC game runs natively on Project Helix. The exact specifics may differ per developer and game. In a lot of cases if you’re coming from a Steam or stock PC build it may be smarter to start with the Xbox for PC version first and then use that as the basis for the Xbox console version. Of course we’ll have more details about how developers can take advantage of the specific hardware features of Project Helix in the months ahead, but doing this ensures they’ll have a native build on Project Helix.”
Kojima himself is fresh off the PC release of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, and has likely begun focusing more towards Kojima Productions’ upcoming games—OD and Physint.
