The Next Xbox, Project Helix, Is Reportedly Coming in 2028

So the next Xbox, Project Helix, is reportedly coming holiday 2028. That comes from a Fortune report on Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, and the same report puts a new Xbox handheld a year before that, with a price estimate that’ll make you do a double take. Let’s separate what the report says from what Microsoft has actually said on the record, because those are two different piles.

What is Project Helix?

It’s the codename for the next-generation Xbox console. Sharma revealed the name on March 5, saying Helix “will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games.” She’d only taken over Xbox a few weeks earlier, in February, replacing Phil Spencer, so this was one of her first big moves.

Six days later, at the Game Developers Conference, Xbox’s vice president of next generation, Jason Ronald, filled in a bit more. He called Helix “our next-generation first-party console,” built on a custom AMD chip.

Then in August, Sharma told BBC News that Xbox has been “hard at work on a great next generation and a great family of devices for Helix.” Family of devices, right? So Helix is more than one box, and Microsoft hasn’t said what the others are.

When is Project Helix coming out?

Microsoft hasn’t given a date. Fortune reports the console is planned for the 2028 holiday season, with a next-generation handheld a year earlier, by the 2027 holidays. Fortune also says engineering deadlines for Helix have moved up by at least several months, so somebody over there is in a hurry.

The record on timing is mixed. Ronald said Microsoft plans to ship alpha versions of the hardware to developers starting in 2027. AMD, which makes the chip, told investors in February that development was “progressing well to support a launch in 2027.” Microsoft itself has never named a year for the console, and Fortune’s reporting points to 2028, a year after the launch AMD said its chip work could support.

How much will it cost?

Nobody knows the final price yet. What Fortune reports is Microsoft’s internal projection: $1,200 to $1,800, unless the company decides to subsidize it, which means selling the hardware for less than it costs to make. Yeah. That’s a big number for a console.

Where does a number like that come from? Microsoft’s own memos spell it out. In a June message to staff, Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty wrote that console storage parts cost more than twice what Xbox paid the previous fall, and that those costs had since doubled again.

For the 2027 holidays, they expect storage to pass five times the price of two years earlier, with memory on a similar path. They also said Xbox needs “a new business model and partnerships for hardware” while it stays committed to Helix.

Sharma has talked about price out loud, too. In the BBC interview, she said this generation has to think about “efficiency and affordability alongside performance,” and give people more choice in how they buy their console. What that choice looks like, she didn’t say.

Is Project Helix a console or a PC?

Microsoft calls it a console that also plays PC games. In April, a leaker claimed Microsoft wouldn’t make a Helix console of its own, and Ronald shut that down: “Project Helix will be available as a 1st party Xbox console.” Which PC stores it supports is the question everybody has, and Microsoft hasn’t answered it, so Steam on Helix is still unconfirmed.

Xbox has been pointing this way for a while. When it announced its AMD partnership in June 2025, Xbox president Sarah Bond promised “an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one device.” Behind the scenes, Fortune reports the Xbox and Windows teams have clashed over Helix’s software, with Windows leaders pushing a trimmed-down Windows Home for an upcoming handheld. Fortune says Xbox now largely controls the operating system. Sharma also told Fortune, “We can’t build Helix on our own.”

Will there be a Project Helix handheld?

Fortune reports one is planned for the 2027 holidays, a year before the console, and Microsoft hasn’t announced it. Who builds it? Fortune doesn’t say whether it’s Microsoft or a partner, the way ASUS makes the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds. Fortune also describes Sharma working with Xbox’s designers on Helix prototypes meant to keep players with Xbox when they play on the go.

This isn’t the first hint, either. Bond’s 2025 announcement covered “next-generation Xbox consoles in your living room and in your hands.” And Sharma’s “family of devices” line leaves room for more than one shape.

Will it play your Xbox games?

Yes, and Microsoft has said so more than once. Ronald said Helix is designed to play your Xbox console games, and that Xbox is “committed to keeping games from four generations of Xbox playable for years to come.” Bond promised compatibility with “your existing library of Xbox games” back in 2025, and AMD’s Jack Huynh repeated it in March. Your library is safe, is the message.

Today’s consoles are getting a disc feature, too. In August, Microsoft announced a feature that gives you a digital copy of most Xbox One and Series X disc games when you insert the disc, and Microsoft calls it part of its commitment to game preservation. Xbox Insiders started testing it on August 31. How that carries over to Helix, Microsoft hasn’t said.

Will it have a disc drive?

Microsoft hasn’t said. BBC News asked Sharma that exact question in August, and she answered with the “family of devices” line instead. Make of that what you will.

What chip does it use, and what is FSR Diamond?

A custom AMD chip, and that’s about all Microsoft has published. Ronald says Helix is co-designed for the next generation of DirectX and AMD’s FSR, with “an order of magnitude leap in ray tracing performance.” That’s Microsoft’s claim, and there are no numbers behind it yet. Leakers call the chip Magnus, a name neither company has used.

FSR Diamond is AMD’s graphics tech for Helix. AMD unveiled it in March, and Huynh said it’s natively optimized for Helix and built into Microsoft’s GDK, the kit developers use to make Xbox games. What’s in it? Next-gen upscaling, which renders a game at a lower resolution and rebuilds a sharper image with AI, plus new multi-frame generation and next-gen Ray Regeneration for ray and path tracing.

Xbox mentioned FSR Diamond again on October 20. In an AMD video, Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet said Helix is “leveraging FSR Diamond to power what comes next.” The same video announced AMD’s current upscaler, FSR 4.1, for today’s Xbox consoles.

What does it mean if you own a Series X or S?

Microsoft says it’s sticking with your console. In an April memo, Sharma and Booty put “Stabilize Gen9 as a healthy and high-quality base” at the top of Xbox’s hardware priorities, and Gen9 is the Series X and S. Think about it. A 2028 Helix would land eight years after those consoles launched in November 2020.

There’s new stuff coming to them, too. Van Vliet said FSR 4.1 is “coming soon” to the Series X and S, with no date yet. The disc-to-digital feature works on the Series X and on Xbox One consoles.

Shopping for one could take some patience. Sharma and Booty wrote in June that Xbox can’t make as many consoles as players want to buy.

What happens next?

Microsoft says more is coming, without a date. Ronald said in March that Xbox couldn’t wait to share more “later this year,” and Sharma told the BBC in August that Xbox will “share more soon.” Until Microsoft does, 2028 is Fortune’s reporting, and $1,200 to $1,800 is an internal projection that could still move.