Microsoft Confirms 'Project Helix,' a Next-Gen Xbox That Can Run PC Games (80.lv) 66
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 80 Level: Microsoft has officially confirmed development of its next-generation Xbox console, currently known internally as Project Helix. While concrete details remain limited, early information suggests the company is positioning the device as a hybrid between a traditional console and a gaming PC, capable of running both Xbox titles and PC games. The codename was revealed recently by new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who reaffirmed Microsoft's continued commitment to dedicated gaming hardware despite speculation that the company might shift entirely toward cloud or platform-based ecosystems. According to Sharma, Project Helix represents the next step in Xbox's console strategy.
Although official specifications have not yet been announced, early reports indicate the system will likely rely on a new AMD system-on-chip combining Xbox hardware with PC-style architecture. The device is expected to emphasize high performance while maintaining compatibility with existing Xbox game libraries. [...] If the concept holds, Project Helix could mark a significant shift in how console ecosystems are structured, moving away from tightly closed hardware platforms toward something closer to a unified PC-console environment. Sharma wrote in a post on X: "Great start to the morning with Team Xbox, where we talked about our commitment to the return of Xbox, including Project Helix, the code name for our next generation console. Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games. Looking forward to chatting about this more with partners and studios at my first GDC next week!"
Although official specifications have not yet been announced, early reports indicate the system will likely rely on a new AMD system-on-chip combining Xbox hardware with PC-style architecture. The device is expected to emphasize high performance while maintaining compatibility with existing Xbox game libraries. [...] If the concept holds, Project Helix could mark a significant shift in how console ecosystems are structured, moving away from tightly closed hardware platforms toward something closer to a unified PC-console environment. Sharma wrote in a post on X: "Great start to the morning with Team Xbox, where we talked about our commitment to the return of Xbox, including Project Helix, the code name for our next generation console. Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games. Looking forward to chatting about this more with partners and studios at my first GDC next week!"
Solid code name (Score:4, Funny)
But the question is - what terrible name will they give it for release?
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"MicrosoftDeck"
Re: Solid code name (Score:2)
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Windows 12... box
Re:Solid code name (Score:4, Funny)
CoPilot Xbox of course.
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Assuming a 2027 release: EntraBox Series CoPilot 2028 Community, Available In Azure.
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But the question is - what terrible name will they give it for release?
Since they seem to like Microslop so much, I'm thinking they'll go with Xslop, Xslop 360, and then Xslop One.
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Vin Diesel should sue them.
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Since it's going to be copilot-based... XBoeing?
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XBox XOneXiX. So they can claim the quad X in marketing materials. One better than porn!
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My money's on XBOX 9000
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Just another classistexploitive platform (Score:3)
designed to limit consumer choice and rip off the public, something classist corporations excel at
this is exactly what evil looks like
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Microsoft is especially fond of limiting consumer choice. It will just be a pretty sad product when it finally comes out, no question.
But...
A lot of people have a weird fixation for consoles. Like a WEIRD fixation. There were people who got online every day for decades and engaged in the very pointless "console wars" debate on twitter and elsewhere. There are people who just buy every product nintendo puts out. There are even still a few fans of the intellevision amico still waiting for it to release. I'm n
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Re:Just another classistexploitive platform (Score:4, Informative)
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none of the crap on the market would exist if people didn't buy but that's not weird, that's programming
you don't think they spend all that money on advertising and market manipulation for nothing do you?
the rich make crap just so the poor have only crap the rich got needlessly richer by selling that very same cheap to make worthless crap
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designed to limit consumer choice and rip off the public, something classist corporations excel at
this is exactly what evil looks like
I’ve been playing PC games on a Microsoft OS personal computer (aka a “PC” for the memory-challenged at Microsoft) long enough to remember loading them via floppy disc.
It doesn’t take Evil to sell that new-old feature again. It takes a whole lot of Stupid and Gullible.
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but it takes real evil to cheat and steal from billions by corrupting our societies, face facts, we live in a classist society domninated by the upper class, there's no democracy, free enteerprise or rule of law, what we have is economic slavery and indebtured servitude, indeed, this is exactly what evil looks like
it's easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the gates of heaven
for a perfect picture of what complete evil looks like just look at our political lead
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don't worry about it, it's just too deep for you anyways, the last thing you want is too hear is the uncomfortable truth that most of us are economically enslaved
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The only thing worse than smug superiority is when it's utterly false.
Re:Just another classist & exploitive platform (Score:2)
Why, because I only have a BA in this specific field of study, or because you're using false superiority to mask your failure to assemble and defend complete thoughts?
The only thing worse than smug superiority is when it's utterly false.
Let's see, an appeal to authority and ad homien reasoning.
A perfect example that when people don't have a counter-argument, they invarible attack thier opponent personally in an attempt to draw them into a mud fight. This is a last ditch effort to bring the econversation down to thier level so they don't feel like they've lost an argument.
So I'll rephrase the point for your benefit.
When 10% of people are hoarding 90% of all the capital, that only leaves 10% of all capital for the 90% of the rest of us to ma
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I don't know, we might end up with a cheaper alternative to a PC for PC gamers which might be appreciated given the ridiculous and rising prices of graphics cards, ram, and hard drives.
Re:Just another classist & exploitive platform (Score:2)
The great news is we already have alternatives, it's called buying cheap used gear online, from places like far east, the last motherboard I bought was an older ASUS WS DDR4 workstation board and the same vendor supplied and pretested the new RAM. The performance is not much less for what I want to do and the price was less than half of what i woud have paid retail. It took longer but fortunately I wasn't in rush as I just wanted to get a cheap Linux server with lots of RAM to mess around with bigger models
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It's not as if the prices on used gear isn't also going up as people search out cheaper pricing.
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true, however deals can still be had but the best part is i'm not supporting evil classist corporations that are ripping us all off
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designed to limit consumer choice
By playing games not designed for it? In a program that is officially cross-platform (there's no such thing as Xbox exclusives anymore). How ... limiting ... I'm sorry have you ever looked up the word "limit" in the dictionary?
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If you can't see how proprietary platforms limit consumer choice, there's no point in our discussing this further, is there?
If you're going to troll, try to be better at it.
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The proprietary platform is existing. The only thing that is new here is that Microsoft is releasing a product that plays from other platforms as well, while also having previously announced their proprietary service will cease doing exclusives. You have choice. More choice than ever before in Xbox history both in hardware and games.
If you're thinking I'm trolling then maybe be better at understanding English. I'm not trolling, I'm pointing out you are really stupid.
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your need to be insulting speaks volumes about you
go on, keep making excuses for evil assholes who are ripping us all off
people like you are why this is continues to happen
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you need to grow up and stop being abusive in public friend
Mods? (Score:1)
Curious what their aiming point is for game mods.
Re: Mods? (Score:2)
So, is this the sunset Xbox platform? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:So, is this the sunset Xbox platform? (Score:4, Interesting)
Pretty much, it sounds like they're turning Xbox from a line of console hardware into a PC gaming service/brand, and the next-gen Xbox sounds like it will be a gaming PC with a stripped-down gaming-optimized version of Windows.
The original Xbox was almost that anyway, just different enough from a gaming PC to make emulating it a big PITA but essentially using ordinary PC hardware running cut-down slivers of Windows & DirectX in firmware. What reason does the Xbox have to exist as anything more than a console-shaped gaming PC these days really? Other gaming consoles have essentially morphed into gaming PCs running oddball hardware & software at the same time, they have all the complexity and expense but none of the compatibility, and the idea of proprietary hardware allowing a performance advantage only ever yielded one that was short-lived.
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it sounds like they're turning Xbox from a line of console hardware into a PC gaming service/brand, and the next-gen Xbox sounds like it will be a gaming PC with a stripped-down gaming-optimized version of Windows.
The original Xbox was almost that anyway
And so is every other Xbox which isn't the 360.
they have all the complexity and expense
They are cheaper than real PCs with the same gaming performance and they have less expandability than even most mini-PCs, so no and no.
and the idea of proprietary hardware allowing a performance advantage only ever yielded one that was short-lived.
It's not that it's proprietary hardware, especially since it barely is that, as it's just lightly customized PC parts. It's that devs don't have to make a game which is so highly self-tuning since it only has to run on a very limited set of hardware configurations.
With all of that said, they are going to have to virtualize Windo
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From the leadership shakeup, it doesn't even get a respectable last hurrah.
Watching Microsoft try and sell PC gaming as a feature on a box running Microsoft OS, deserves a fucking slapfest against Marketing until they actually remember who made PC gaming ubiquitous.
Not a hurrah. Not even a golf clap. Slapfest 2026. Sponsored by the UFC.
Too late. (Score:4, Insightful)
Someone already beat them making the "new 'box" [steampowered.com].
Those execs are really earning their tremendous salaries with these innovative ideas.
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Well yes they are. Xbox as a platform still has the opportunity to be a market place for a consumer (i.e. income for Microsoft). Why would they just let Valve get that money instead when they can put the Xbox store in consumer's faces?
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Someone already beat them making the "new 'box" [steampowered.com].
Those execs are really earning their tremendous salaries with these innovative ideas.
Vale made a mistake of not securing enough hw parts to make it and it's now suffering from the RAM shortage
Corpo (Score:1)
Soulless clueless non-gamer AI-slop corpo says what?
Hypervisor? (Score:3)
If they are using a hypervisor and passing the GPU between an XBOX VM and a Windows VM, I'd like to see them go the other way too.
Have a XBOX mode for verified hardware, which can run games in a big-screen XBOX mode through the XBOX VM.
This is aimed at defeating Steam Machines (Score:2)
Re:This is aimed at defeating Steam Machines (Score:4, Informative)
They know that Windows games are commoditized now, this is a last attempt to try and lock the gate. They might succeed somewhat if they get a better deal on memory pricing, but it will be more locked down than having a full KDE desktop on your games machine like the Steam Machine will.
Yep, MS has finally realised that Linux has become a genuine alternative for gamers. The only thing stopping me from swapping is the fact I need a new SSD (which aren't cheap right now) as Steam doesn't tend to like using NTFS drives and due to a steam install based decades ago, it's difficult to use a steamapps folder in a non standard location (I.E. D:\program files\steam\steamapps), which is why I need the new SSD to transfer the installs.
I expect MS to make a complete hash of it though. I'm certain Steam went through a lot of teething issues with Linux and Steamdeck but they seem to have solved most of them.
Forgetting your roots. (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft now claims an Xbox running PC games, is a feature that we should be in awe over.
This is like watching Ford bring back the Pinto and brag about how cool a hatchback feature would be today. You guys DO remember who made the Windows PC rather ubiquitous, right?
I have a box that runs Windows that plays PC games too. I call it a PC instead of paying more to call it an Xbox. Been playing PC games on it for a couple decades now.
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A way of locking down Windows without actually locking down Windows.
I don't like using Linux, but I have to wonder... would all Windows and MacOS PCs just be glorified smart phones at this point if it weren't for Linux?
Pehaps the first game... (Score:2)
Perhaps the first game will be a reboot of the 1993 "Iron Helix" for Project Helix. It seemed at the time, the most popular game to despise although I spent hours playing it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
JoshK.
Consoles are PCs (Score:2)
"Consoles" have essentially been PCs for the last couple generations. There is nothing surprising in that an AMD machine with a MS operating system on it can run PC games. My guess is that it took more effort in the past to prevent gamers from doing that.
Re: Consoles are PCs (Score:2)
Console OS's are more like mobile OS's than desktop OS's.
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Console OS's are more like mobile OS's than desktop OS's.
What does this mean? The major component (the kernel) is essentially the same, with some more DRM stuffed into it. The userland differs but in general it's not hard to replace. The world's most popular mobile OS (Android) is immediately recognizable as Linux once you get a shell, albeit with some additional crap running to handle Android apps. If you ignore all that stuff it's really very little different from normal Linux from a user's perspective.
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It's locked down by design. Sandboxing/isolation is much stricter by design. There are extreme ways to go beyond that design on mobile phones, but nothing as easy as "run as administrator". Consoles are even more locked down.
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The Xbox has always been a PC-style architecture.
Xbox 360 wasn't.
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Xbox 360 wasn't.
It used a customised 2.8-3.2GHz PowerPC 970/G5 processor, supported x86 (by way of Connectix VirtualPC, that became Hyper-V) so that it could run original Xbox games, and even included a version of .NET Framework to run games under Microsoft's newer XNA Framework. What makes you think it wasn't a PC-style architecture?
Makes sense with recent Sony announcement (Score:2)
Bet it'll still be locked down... (Score:4, Interesting)
It might be able to run Xbox and Windows games, but I suspect it won't allow you to install another OS like Linux on it. Heck, I'd even consider buying it if I could run Linux on the bare metal - it'd probably run games faster than my current Linux PC.
I guess I'm an early adopter... (Score:1)