New Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma, who took over as the head of the Xbox business last week as longtime Xbox boss Phil Spencer retired, has confirmed the codename for Xbox's next-generation console – Project Helix – and also confirmed long-swirling rumors that the device will play Xbox and PC games.
Xbox boss Asha Sharma has discussed how component shortages will impact the company's plans for Project Helix.
When does this end? Its killing everyone. Consoles and PC. And for what? AI? The benefits of AI are completely outweighed by the negatives. And the government should have never allowed one company to buy up all the RAM.
This kind of proves this is an after thought product, most products like this are in r&d 5 years before they start mass producing. So they typically have the cost of components and things worked out long before assembly starts.
This is an assumption still, but I wouldn’t be surprised if project helix is similar to Scalebound,perfect dark and sod3. They had an idea but no actual execution other than concept stage. Being impacted by the ram shortage likely would also put this device 3-4 years out.
I’m not even sure MS has that endurance with Xbox yet
I mean.... what?
We're at a point that Samsung wont even provide their own phone department ram because they can sell it at higher prices to 3rd parties (AI). Its more profitable to sell the ram than make their own devices with it.
You think because R&D starts 5 years ago the 3rd party component manufacturers will honour that price? They'll sell it to whomever is paying the most today, not some gentlemens agreement they made years ago. AI farms will buy more volume at higher prices than any console manufacturer will. It'll be the same for Playstation.
Contractual agreements are not the same as “gentlemen” agreements. If you think that they work with their distributors a month before production then their entire business model is trash. They work with companies like nvidia constantly for building the graphics cards they need. They work with companies that build motherboards years in advance. This is what proper business planning does.
They are not buying components on a whim like a consumer. So again, considering the ram isn’t a singular module and is integrated into the motherboard I highly doubt they wouldn’t have a final schematic that they are supposed to be building around.
If they are delaying production another 3 years then it’s obvious again this is an after though project and is just trying to be responsive to their bad execution they had the last 14 years.
It also isn’t far fetched to use their failure to produce first party titles the last 7 years including the highly anticipated games I mentioned all being cancelled. That they would continue to you know… lie
Helix is going to be stupidly expensive
Instead of leaning into smarter upscaling techniques they're brute forcing hardware that will cost them dearly and it remains to be seen if it's genuinely going to provide a meaningful differential
I know in the oc.doace people like to brag about not using frame gen or dlss to get to high on a game but for the majority of players they happily use those technologies without a second thought
That's going to be ps6 vs Helix
While this does seem to be the case, I am encouraged by the statement from Microsoft about wanting to provide affordable options. If this means a Series S style Helix, at least there will be something affordable being offered.
It's called systematic inflationary. Yes we get it Microsoft, keep raising in the name ofall kinds of stuffs
Honestly if there was thing I learned from this generation is that new consoles arnt day one anymore.
I can wait 1-3 years.
Another important lesson from this generation: while Nintendo showed us that prices don't necessarily need to ever drop, we've now learned that waiting 1-3 years does carry some risk that prices increase. This generation is just bizarre in all the wrong ways.
The factors are largely external. Covid and Russia-Ukraine war causing inflation led to the first price increase in 2022.
Then we get Trump's tariffs increasing hardware prices, AI boom causing a RAM crisis, war on Iran causing a worldwide fuel crisis which impacts the cost of everything.
Gaming doesn't exist in a vacuum. The last few years have been a shitshow and lot of it was definitely avoidable.
LucasRuinedChildhood,
For sure. No disagreement on the external factors doing a lot of this. Where I have to gently push back however is on two fronts:
1. The pandemic definitely caused some issues: asynchronous development was a big issue and really complicated timelines and affected game quality. At the same time, when it comes to price hikes, it's really difficult to know what was genuine necessity and what was taking consumers for a ride. The pandemic brought about "stag-flation" which was increasing prices and stagnant wages, which was a problem caused by supply chain constraints. There was also "Greed-flation", where companies that were slightly affected or had no issues took advantage of the situation and squeezed everyone citing supply chain issues when there were none.
2. It's definitely true that the tariffs, AI boom, and RAM crisis were all things enabled by tech broligarchs throwing money at this caricature of a world leader, one of them being Satya Nadella. I don't think Sony and Nintendo have contributed much to this problem if at all, but Microsoft's Nadella I feel was instrumental in causing every one of those issues. Microsoft as a company contributed to both candidates (though they gave Harris 4x as much if I recall), but Nadella was all in on letting AI run wild. He paid for unregulated AI, and got a war that's not a war (even though Trump called it that at least five times on television) that screwed up helium access. So for me, I feel that one of the players in the gaming industry is a key architect of these issues, and for that reason I struggle a bit to think of it as "external".
The Xbox maker will begin sending alpha versions of Project Helix to developers starting in 2027.
Bloomberg reports Sony is weighing a next PlayStation delay to 2028 or 2029, while Nintendo considers a Switch 2 price increase in 2026.
Sony's Chief Financial Officer, Lin Tao, has officially stated that the PlayStation 5 is currently "only in the middle of its journey." During a recent earnings call on November 11, 2025, Tao emphasized the company's intention to extend the PS5's lifecycle, suggesting that they plan to support the console for several more years, potentially until 2030.
To even pretend that PS6 is "delayed" is disengenuous.
I'm not saying the console is or isn't delayed, but people are taking broad statements and just running with what they want to hear or what gets the most clicks which is always "Sony is doomed".
PlayStation 4 is still being supported by Sony, and will probably still be supported when PS6 releases. Even if PS6 released at the end of this year PS5 would still only be halfway through its life cycle.
The claim of "delayed" refers to a set time being pushed back. Sony hasn't set a time for release. "Delay" is on the headline.
Leadership stated that it most likely won't be until '29 or '30.
And we already had this rumor awhile ago.
https://n4g.com/news/268427...
They always say this kind of thing every generation with the idea that the current consoles "life cycle" extends into the life cycle of the next one.
Nothing is true, everything can be spun for press.
The PS4 is still here 5 years after the PS5 launched, now with a lifespan of 12/13 years.
We just got the PRO. And Sony had already mentioned we are only halfway through the generation. So yeah this makes sense.
Good
Ps5 feels barely started and we barely got out of the part where games are on ps4 as well
I agree. I got my PS5 at launch and the years have whizzed by. The PS4 is still out there and that's 12/13 years old.
agreed. I'm still using my launch PS4. that thing was built like a tank and still going strong to this day. sure I have my PS5 too and the launch PS4 feel a little redundant as all its games are playable on PS5 but sometime my kids are using my PS5, lucky me I also have the PS4 Pro. so I can still play my PS4 games on that too. I think maybe sometime down the line, I might get myself the PS5 Pro but unlike the PS4 Pro, which offers 4K gaming over 1080p of the original PS4, I still can't find any reason to upgrade to the PS5 Pro. having an OLED TV, games on the original PS5 still look gorgeous!
another thing I'm doing right now is buying PS3 games for dirt cheap and play those games I missed out on the PS3. Recently bought Space Marine, Red Faction Armageddon, Bulletstorm and others. gotta play those too but the fact that the PS3 doesn't have suspend features, now feeling like a true pain in the a$$. If only Sony would allow us to play PS3 games on the PS5 through BC, I would be so happy and I will be able to play these old games on my Portal without having to subscribe to PS+ Premium.
A release date for the PS6 was never established... it actually has not even been announced. Therefore how is it delayed?
This really doesn't bother me at all. The PS5 has so much life left in it. Especially given the incremental increases we've seen in graphics fidelity over the last generation or so.
With previous releases I think there was often a case for people wanting better graphics but these days, is anyone really playing games and thinking "if only it had better graphics"? My impression is people care way more about gameplay and story in comparison.
The current consoles are sufficient, the PS4 is still about 5 years after the PS5 launched, last gen consoles were replaced too early, knock out the next consoles in 2030. On another note, the cost of gaming now, next gen is going to buckle most gamers.
Hm.
Selling to customers the benefits of Xbox Helix compared to a PC and Steam Machine will be the biggest task for Xbox' marketing, I suppose.
The question will be if you have a PC, why buy a Xbox that plays PC and Xbox games… Unless they plan to have you buy a Xbox PC instead of a dedicated PC. Thats got to be the plan. Take some of the PC players and turn them into console PC players. They couldn’t give you full access to the PC/console like you can with a dedicated PC because you would think the piracy for the “dedicated” Xbox games would be crazy. Yeah, they are really going to have to explain who this is for. If you can install whatever you want then you would have Steam access. This directly copies the Steam box idea so I’m sure Steam isn’t happy about it. I guess time will tell.
Basically a PC with an Xbox logo slapped on, just like the so called Xbox handheld.
My guess is it won't play my Xbox games I have on disc 🤔