A new Fortune profile of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma lays out a two-year hardware plan, a rebuilt Game Pass and an eye-popping internal price range for the next console.
On October 20, Fortune published a wide-ranging profile of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, and it is packed with details on where Xbox is headed. None of this is officially announced by Microsoft, so treat it as a report, not a press release.
Here is what Fortune says, citing people familiar with the plans:
- A next-generation Xbox handheld by the 2027 holiday season.
- The next Xbox console, Project Helix, by the 2028 holiday season.
- A Game Pass overhaul where players pick features a la carte, with add-ons for things like console games, cloud gaming and multiplayer, on a tiered structure.
- An internal price projection of $1,200 to $1,800 for the Helix console, “unless Microsoft decides to subsidize the cost.” That is a projection, not a retail price.
Fortune also describes a clash between Xbox and Windows leadership over what software the handheld should run. Windows wanted a trimmed-down version of Windows Home, while Sharma’s team wanted its own software built for gaming performance. According to Fortune, Xbox is now largely steering the operating system for the project, and Sharma said the two groups still work closely together.
The profile adds that Xbox has around 100 million daily active users, that active console usage has rebounded year over year, and that Sharma’s long-term goal is a platform reaching more than 1 billion people a day. The Verge, Ars Technica and VGC all followed up on the report.
Context matters on that price. Memory and storage costs have climbed hard this year, and the whole industry is feeling it. VGC notes a recent claim that the PlayStation 6’s memory and storage alone could cost Sony over $680 per console, so this is not an Xbox-only problem.
The headline number is scary, but read the fine print: $1,200 to $1,800 is the price before any subsidy, and I do not see a world where Xbox launches a new console without eating some of that cost to get a running start. My expectation is a subsidized launch somewhere around $850 to $1,250 for the big box. Honestly, $1,800 is not happening, because the masses would not show up for it, and Asha knows that. The real story here is the plan: a handheld next year, a new console the year after, Xbox taking control of its own software, and a CEO who clearly wants to win. That is Xbox on offense, and that is a good place to be.
