Hardware leaker Tom of Moore's Law Is Dead shot down the scary $1,800 number for Microsoft's next Xbox, and says Project Helix is more likely aimed at $999 to $1,200. AMD leaker Kepler is more cautious.
Remember that $1,200 to $1,800 internal price range from Fortune’s Asha Sharma profile last week? One of the loudest hardware leakers in the game says forget the top end. On the October 27 episode of his Broken Silicon podcast (episode 385), Tom from Moore’s Law Is Dead, who was talking up Microsoft’s console/PC hybrid well before Microsoft confirmed Project Helix in March, said he’d literally eat his slipper if Helix costs $1,800. AMD leaker Kepler (@Kepler_L2), who has leaked details of Helix’s AMD “Magnus” chip, is more cautious, and Microsoft hasn’t announced any price.
Key facts
- What MLID said (Oct 27, 2026): “I will eat this slipper if the Xbox is $1,800, guys. I’ll eat it. No. There’s no way.”
- His target: “I think probably they aim for more like… 1,000 flat, like 999.” His “crazy” scenario is $1,200.
- His math (from March): about $900 to build at scale, $999 if Xbox is aggressive, $1,200 most likely, and “I don’t think more than $1,500.”
- What Kepler said (Oct 20, 2026): console makers “never intended to release consoles for over $1K,” but nobody could have predicted RAM and NAND prices going “up by 5x.” He did not give a Helix price.
- Fortune’s number (Oct 20): Microsoft internally projected $1,200 to $1,800, “unless Microsoft decides to subsidize the cost,” with Helix targeting holiday 2028.
- Officially confirmed: Project Helix plays Xbox and PC games, runs on a custom AMD chip, and alpha dev kits go to studios in 2027. No price, no release date.
What Moore’s Law Is Dead actually said
Tom was talking with YouTuber Mugthief when the $1,800 headlines came up. His answer was blunt:
“I will eat this slipper if the Xbox is $1,800, guys. I’ll eat it. No. There’s no way.”
Moore’s Law Is Dead, Broken Silicon 385 (around 38:20)
Later in the episode he walked through a price scenario and said Microsoft is likely shooting for a four-figure round number, not $1,800:
“Xbox Helix is, I’ll make it crazy, $1,200. I think probably they aim for more like… 1,000 flat, like 999, but let’s say it’s 1,200.”
Moore’s Law Is Dead, Broken Silicon 385 (around 50:30)
He also said that even at $1,200, Helix’s pitch holds up because it is “faster,” “does support discs,” and is “much more open,” with stores like the Epic Games Store, EA’s store and Ubisoft’s store. He wasn’t sure about Steam: “I don’t know if Steam games.” He added a caveat of his own, saying “a lot’s going to change in the next 6 months” with memory prices.
That lines up with what he said back in March, as VGC reported. His bill-of-materials math then:
- Graphics silicon: based on an AMD document he says shows a $550 target for the RDNA 5 “AT2” graphics card that shares Helix’s chiplet. He figured about $600 for that.
- Extra RAM: about $200 more.
- The 3nm CPU die: about $100 more.
- Total: “If Microsoft wanted to sell this thing at cost, they could probably do so at around $900 if it was mass-manufactured at a large scale.”
- His price call: “If Xbox wanted to be kind of aggressive, they would go for $999… most likely I could see $1,200, but I don’t think more than $1,500.”
What Kepler said
Kepler hasn’t put a number on Helix. On October 20, right after the Fortune story broke, he posted that “designing a console is a 5+ year process” and that the console makers “never intended to release consoles for over $1K,” blaming RAM and NAND prices that went “up by 5x.” In a reply the same day, he called the Fortune report’s 2028 timing an “if,” and said 2028 wouldn’t be any better on pricing. His read is that four-figure consoles are coming, so he isn’t the one saying “under a grand.” That’s Tom.
What Kepler has been loud about is power. On October 15 he posted that with the RTX 4090 and 5090 both discontinued, “when Xbox Helix launches it will technically be the most powerful consumer GPU.”
The specs behind the price
Leaks from both insiders have Helix running on AMD’s “Magnus” chip, with:
- CPU: Zen 6 cores.
- GPU: RDNA 5 with 68 compute units.
- Power: about 56 TFLOPS.
- Memory: GDDR7.
None of that is confirmed by Microsoft, and that GDDR7 memory is exactly why prices are climbing.
What’s still unknown
- The actual price, and whether Microsoft subsidizes it.
- Whether Helix lands in 2027 or holiday 2028. Fortune says 2028. Tom still thinks 2027 is possible.
- Whether there’s a cheaper model in the lineup.
We broke down the full Fortune report, including the Xbox handheld targeting holiday 2027, here: RUMOR: Xbox Handheld Targets Holiday 2027, Project Helix Console Holiday 2028.
OnPoint’s take: Now we are talking. $1,800 was never going to fly, because the masses won’t show up for that, and Asha knows it. Now one of the most plugged-in hardware leakers out there says the same thing and puts it right around a grand. For a machine that might be the most powerful gaming box you can buy, playing your Xbox library AND your PC games with discs on top, $999 is a power move. It’s still a lot of money, I’m not going to pretend it isn’t. But you’re getting a beast that plays both worlds. What a time to be an Xbox fan.
Sources
- Moore’s Law Is Dead, Broken Silicon 385 (Oct 27, 2026)
- Moore’s Law Is Dead on X (episode post)
- Kepler on X (Oct 20, consoles over $1K)
- Kepler on X (Oct 15, most powerful consumer GPU)
- VGC (Mar 9, MLID $999 to $1,200 math)
- Generacion Xbox (Oct 28)
- Fortune (Oct 20)
- Ars Technica (Oct 20)
Image: OnPoint 4 Gamers illustration (not official Xbox art)
If the Helix rumor is right and it lands at $999, are you buying day one?
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