Following Microsoft's 'This is an Xbox' campaign, its confirmation of its new console makes me think 'This is a PC'

After months of rumors, and some logical speculation given the adaptability of its handheld Ally X, Xbox‘s new CEO has confirmed that its next console will be able to play PC games. Moving surprisingly quickly to drop the news since her appointment just two weeks ago, Asha Sharma claims that the new hardware, codenamed Project Helix, “will lead in performance.”

It’s not the wildest revelation in the world to learn that the next Xbox will also run PC games. The Xbox Ally X showed Microsoft’s willingness to let players access other ecosystems like Steam alongside its own platform, and it seems the same approach will be present for Project Helix. Admittedly Sharma doesn’t claim exactly how widely it’ll open things up – the ‘PC games’ could potentially only be those bought from the Xbox PC storefront or played through PC Game Pass, for example. However, I think it’s highly likely that it’ll be the same open-armed approach as the Ally X, where you can access the likes of Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG.

Microsoft’s notorious ‘This is an Xbox’ campaign, which focused on marketing Xbox as a whole ecosystem where numerous devices could be used to play its games, also showed its intention to break down the dividing walls between PC, console, and mobile. Well, from what I’m hearing about Helix, ‘This is basically a PC.’

In the days since her appointment, Sharma has regularly tried to ease concerns that Xbox was moving away from hardware – specifically, the home console hardware that it built its name on initially – and she’s wasted little time in officially confirming Project Helix.

“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,” she says in a post on X. “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!”

It’s unclear if we’ll get any more public information as a result of her GDC trip, but I’ve got my fingers loosely crossed.

There’s also no word on a timeline for Project Helix yet. Recent comments from AMD’s CEO appeared to suggest that Xbox’s new hardware was on track for 2027, but until Microsoft officially confirms intentions to launch it next year, I wouldn’t get too optimistic. You can also forget about a rough idea on cost – it’s way too early to give figures like that, especially with the ongoing issues with RAM prices.

I do wonder what this new console will actually end up being called… my money’s on it just becoming the ‘HeliX’. Or maybe, given Sharma’s intentions to get back to the roots of Xbox, she’ll go down the videogame series reboot route and just call it ‘the Xbox’. We’ll see.