Microsoft's Game Developers Conference 2026 keynote has finished, and we have everything announced below, including new details on the next-gen Xbox, codenamed Project Helix.
'Building for the Future with Xbox' saw Jason Ronald, VP, Next Generation, Microsoft, host a "conversation about the vision shaping the future of Xbox and how we're building a more flexible, connected future for game creators and players everywhere." It was delivered in front of a packed audience at GDC 2026 this morning.
Microsoft's GDC keynote came just a few weeks after a significant shakeup at its gaming business, with former gaming boss Phil Spencer retiring, would-be successor Sarah Bond out, and Asha Sharma drafted in as new Xbox CEO.
Following the announcement of Sharma's appointment, Seamus Blackley, who co-created Xbox at Microsoft, said that because Xbox is not a core part of Microsoft’s all-encompassing AI push, it was potentially “being sunsetted.” Blackley added that the fact Sharma came over from Microsoft’s AI team with no gaming background was further evidence of the company’s strategy. “They don’t say that, but that’s what’s happening,” Blackley said. “I expect that the new CEO, Asha Sharma, her job is going to be as a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night."
But Microsoft boss Satya Nadella countered that concern by last week insisting that Microsoft is “long on gaming” and will always invest in it.
Project Helix will play Xbox and PC games. "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," Sharma posted on her X account last week. "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!"
Building for the Future with Xbox GDC Keynote updates:
UPDATE 10.50am PT: And that's a wrap! A surprisingly beefy keynote there from Microsoft, which revealed early details on Project Helix and a few other new features and initiatives. Scroll down to find out everthing Microsoft announced during its GDC talk.
UPDATE 10.46am PT: Ronald is now shifting to discussing game preservation. "Not only is this something that's deeply personal to us, but we feel a deep responsibility to preserve games of the past," Ronald says, adding that Microsoft wants to use "the latest technology" to play old games in "new ways."
And then, a mention of Fuzion Frenzy! It's an example of a game released when HD didn't exist, nor smartphones or game streaming, but now that's how people can and do play it.
Ronald said Microsoft is seeing "tremendous growth in the handheld market," with "a lot of innovation coming in the accessory space." This sounded a bit like Ronald alluding to DualSense-type features/innovation in the next-gen Xbox controller).
UPDATE 10.41am PT: Ronald is now talking about Xbox Play Anywhere, focusing on cross-progression. "There's a huge opportunity to lean into this and start building games the way modern players play games," Ronald says, with the slide below.
UPDATE 10.52am PT: Ronald's keynote ends with a promo video calling on the development community to consider working with Xbox. It includes brief appearances from the likes of Double Fine chief Tim Schafer and Hideo Kojima.
UPDATE 10.37am PT: Ronald announces "Xbox Mode" is coming to Windows 11 in "select markets" starting in April. It adds features found on Xbox Ally to your PC and laptop. You'll be able to switch into Xbox mode to get that “Xbox feeling,” Ronald says, noting that players want "their content front and center," and to play 2-3 games at any time.
He’s dancing around but not confirming quick resume on PC, noting again that Microsoft wants to deliver a "consistent experience," a "distinctly Xbox experience wherever you choose to play." Ronald added that as a player jumping between devices, you basically have to learn a new layout every time. Microsoft doesn't want that going forward and wants to streamline the experience.
UPDATE 10.34am PT: Ronald is showing a slide on how player behaviors have changed. We're playing across screens, with fragmented libraries. Ronald noted that players have grown up in a world where their media is available on any screen, as a contrast to how consoles are fragmented from PC gaming.
"What we've really learned is as we look at it, PC is becoming an increasingly important part of the Xbox experience," he says. "We're bringing the best of Xbox to Windows itself to make Windows a great OS for games."
Ronald points to the ROG Xbox Ally as another version of this. (For 20 years he has been asked to get into the handheld ecosystem, but the time felt right now with the way the ecosystem has developed).
Speaking about how the ROG Xbox Ally allows you to play all the games already in your library, Ronald says Microsoft is listening to player feedback and what they've learned from Xbox (like "Advanced Shader Delivery") to apply to the ROG Xbox Ally. He jokes about shaders compiling and how long it can take. On Advanced Shader Delivery (expanding access to this system already on ROG Xbox Ally to devs), Ronald says: “Our north star is that we want players to get into the fun as quickly as possible.”
He notes default game profiles as a feature Microsoft created for the ROG Xbox Ally to help optimize battery usage and performance on the handheld. "One of the pieces of feedback we got was everyone wanted the same experience on their PC," he says.
UPDATE 10.27am PT: Alpha versions of Project Helix will be sent to developers in 2027, Ronald confirms. Microsoft is pivoting to "future of play" and player behaviors, he adds. "The days of people defining themselves as (console/PC/mobile gamer) don't really exist anymore." Ronald is thinking about how to develop tools where players are going to play across multiple devices.
UPDATE 10.24am PT: Now onto the juicy stuff… Project Helix! Ronald reiterates that the next-gen Xbox plays Xbox console games and PC games. We even have early Project Helix features:
Plays Your Xbox Console & PC Games
Powered By Custom AMD SOC
- Codesigned for Next Generation of DirectX
- Next Gen Raytracing Performance & capabilities
- GPU Directed Work Graph Execution
AMD FSR Next + Project Helix
- Built for Next Generation of Neural Rendering
- Next Generation ML Upscaling
- New ML Multiframe Generation
- Next Gen Ray Regeneration for RT and Path Tracing
Deep Texture Compression
- Neural Texture Compression
- DirectStorage + Zstd
Project Helix is "an order of magnitude improvement" on ray tracing performance, Ronald adds.
UPDATE 10.22am PT: Ronald asks, "What to do players what to experience, and how can we have developers like you be successful on our platform?" He says ray tracing "has always been the holy grail of computer graphics,” and that Microsoft leaned into the development of direct storage in the Xbox Series X and S.
Microsoft, Ronald adds, is trying to provide one common platform for game developers so you can design and optimize with confidence.
UPDATE 10.20am PT: Ronald is now running through Microsoft's various consoles, calling the original Xbox "really disruptive." It was the first console to have a hard drive, for example. The Xbox 360 was the first console to have an online digital marketplace, and had Xbox Live "deeply integrated into the fabric of the user experience. The Xbox One was the first time Microsoft released a mid-console update with the Xbox One X to introduce 4K. Ronald also mentions backwards compatibility. The Xbox Series X and S are two units, one more affordable, but they both play the same games.
UPDATE 10.14am PT: Jason Ronald, VP, Next Generation, begins by saying GDC is one of the most exciting times of the year because it's a time the industry gets together. Ronald adds that gaming's always been in Microsoft's DNA, with Microsoft Flight Simulator the oldest franchise in the history of Microsoft. It began in 1982, three years before Windows was released.
For 25 of those years, we've had Xbox, Ronald continues. And Xbox has been focused on how can we bring people together across generations, he adds. "As we celebrate 25 years of Xbox, it's really about celebrating the people." He thanks the community for their support.
UPDATE 10.10am PT: The keynote is about to begin!
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
