It’s been a while since Microsoft teased Project Helix as a next-generation Xbox that’ll play both console and PC games. But, in the months that have followed the Project Helix announcement, the world of PC gaming hardware has been turned entirely on its head.
It’s still not clear when Project Helix will actually make it to market, but over this last weekend, there were rumblings that Microsoft was thinking about pulling back from Steam. Those rumblings came from Jez Corden’s Xbox Two podcast, and Corden wrote out a long post on Windows Central yesterday basically calling it a misunderstanding.
Xbox isn’t likely to pull its games from Steam any time soon, but with the cost of hardware being what it is, I could see the company walking back on the open nature of Project Helix. Launching an open PC platform is a risky move when hardware costs keep going up. Just look at the Steam Machine – due to its nature as an open platform, Valve couldn’t reasonably subsidize the hardware, and it led to that mini PC getting a four-digit price tag.
Project Helix, as it was pitched back in March, would basically be a Windows-flavored version of what the Steam Machine is doing. But because it’s going to have ‘next-gen’ pressures, the hardware will probably be significantly more powerful than what you’ll find in the GabeCube. If Microsoft isn’t able to subsidize the cost – and if it’s an open platform, it won’t be able to – it’s likely that you’re going to have to pay gaming PC money to get the next Xbox.
I’m not sure how many people would be willing to spend one or two thousand bucks on a next-generation gaming console, especially if Sony isn’t also charging that much. It feels like a foregone conclusion right now that the $500 console is dead, but even if it is, I’m not sure that the PS6 would actually reach $1,000. Just last month, industry analyst Piers Harding-Rolls said on Twitter that he didn’t think the Steam Machine’s high price necessarily means the next PlayStation would hit a thousand bucks, mostly due to Sony’s more robust supply chain.
Either way, it’s a little early for any of this to be anything more than just speculation. Right now, it looks like the PS6 isn’t going to be coming out until 2028 anyways, and there’s a possibility that the RAM crisis will have died down a little before then. But if hardware is still in short supply when Project Helix and the PS6 come out, I almost want Microsoft to double down on making its next-gen console a gaming PC.
If Microsoft really wants to court PC gamers, it makes a lot of sense to have Project Helix as a sort of first-party halo (no pun intended) product. Ideally, Microsoft would just make the console/PC hybrid as close to a top-end rig as possible and position it as the premium option. Then, Microsoft could just leave the entry-level to third-party manufacturers or PC builders. After all, part of the magic of PC gaming is its scalability, so you wouldn’t need to fork over whatever Microsoft is asking for Helix, if you’re willing to build something yourself.
It wouldn’t even be the first time that Microsoft took this kind of approach. Outside of Xbox, this is exactly the mindset behind the Surface lineup of PCs. Microsoft makes a beautiful laptop as a model of what the company thinks PCs should be, but still allows Windows and all of its software to run on other hardware. I’ve even joked to friends in the past that it was only a matter of time before Microsoft made the Xbox Surface, and that’s kind of what Project Helix looks like, at least right now. Not a tablet, to be clear, but a sleek, high-end device.
Even though there are rumors that Microsoft is going to keep supporting discs, it still feels like the death of physical games is looming around the corner, so Project Helix going with an open PC platform would at least allow you to buy games on GoG. And, there, you’ll have a more convincing illusion of owning your games than just buying them on the Xbox store. Plus, if you’re anything like me, where you own hundreds of games across various PC storefronts, you’ll have an instant library on day one.
The problem with Helix being an open platform, though, is the UX. One of the most frustrating things about the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X continues to be the Xbox Full Screen Experience. Microsoft has done a lot to improve it since I reviewed the handheld last year, but to this day it’s still sometimes buggy and unresponsive, especially on the base Xbox Ally. I frequently have problems where I go to close a game, and it just doesn’t work, leading me to mashing the X button in Task View until the game eventually closes.
I do think the Xbox Full Screen experience works pretty well on a TV, and would make a lot of sense on a console, but only if Microsoft puts in the work to actually polish it. Luckily, the company has plenty of time to tighten the screws before the next-gen consoles launch, and Project Helix will likely be powerful enough to brute force some of the issues the handhelds have with the OS. Ideally, the FSE should be as intuitive as SteamOS by the time the console hits living rooms.
However, with the way hardware pricing is going, and with how CEO Asha Sharma seems intent on bringing back Xbox’s console identity, it’s possible that Microsoft pulls a 180 on Project Helix, making it a traditional follow-up to the Series X. It would make sense to funnel people into the Xbox store where Microsoft could make a bigger cut of each game sold. Maybe that’s even the path Xbox should take. But I really think Project Helix would be losing something special by just being a sequel to the Xbox Series X, rather than taking a stand as Microsoft’s example of what a gaming PC should be.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
