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Next Xbox ‘Project Helix’ & 2027 Handheld: Everything We Know About Price, Specs & Release Window

Xbox has confirmed Project Helix but not a price or date. Here is what is official and what is only reported about the next Xbox, the 2027 handheld and backwards compatibility.

Duncan Baxter · 11 min read
Project Helix logo in white on a black background
Project Helix is Xbox's next-generation console. Image: Xbox

Xbox has officially confirmed Project Helix, its next-generation console, but almost everything players want to know about it is still unconfirmed. The release window, the price and the handheld plans all come from press reports, not from Xbox. This page keeps the two apart, so you can see at a glance what Microsoft has actually said and what is only rumour.

Last updated: 25 October 2026 (UK time). We’ll update this page as news breaks, and the date above changes each time we do.

What Xbox players need to know

  • Release window: reported, not announced. Fortune says a next-generation handheld is planned by the 2027 holiday season and the Project Helix console by the 2028 holidays. Xbox has only confirmed that it plans to ship alpha versions of the Helix hardware to developers from 2027. There is no consumer launch date.
  • Price: not announced. Fortune reports that the Helix console has “internally been projected” at $1,200 to $1,800 unless Microsoft subsidises it. No price has been reported for a handheld.
  • Backwards compatibility: promised in principle, no details. Xbox has said its next-generation consoles will maintain compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games, and that Helix is designed to play your Xbox console and PC games. It hasn’t said which games, or how.
  • Xbox Play Anywhere: not announced for Helix. Play Anywhere already covers more than 1,500 games across Xbox consoles and Windows PCs. Xbox hasn’t said whether Helix or any new handheld will support it. Our Xbox Play Anywhere guide explains how it works today.

Confirmed vs rumoured

“Confirmed” means Xbox, Microsoft or a named Xbox executive has said it on the record. “Reported” means a news outlet says it, usually citing unnamed sources. Dates are the publication dates of each source.

Topic Status What we know Source and date
Project Helix exists Officially confirmed Xbox’s next-generation first-party console, in development. Xbox Wire, Jason Ronald, 11 March 2026
Plays Xbox and PC games Officially confirmed “Designed to play your Xbox console and PC games.” No list of supported PC games or stores. Xbox Wire, 11 March 2026
Chip Officially confirmed Custom AMD SoC, co-designed for the next generation of DirectX and FSR. Xbox claims “an order of magnitude leap in ray tracing performance”. No core counts, memory or storage figures. Xbox Wire, 11 March 2026
Upscaling tech Officially confirmed Xbox’s CTO said Helix will use AMD’s FSR “Diamond”, as announced with AMD. Gematsu, Sal Romano, 20 October 2026
Developer hardware Officially confirmed Alpha versions of the hardware go to developers beginning in 2027. Xbox Wire, 11 March 2026
First-party console Officially confirmed “Project Helix will be available as a 1st party Xbox console.” Partner devices weren’t ruled out. Windows Central, Adam Hales, 21 April 2026 (quoting Jason Ronald)
A “family of devices” Officially confirmed Xbox CEO Asha Sharma told BBC News Xbox is working on “a great family of devices for Helix”. No devices were named. The Verge, Jay Peters, 28 August 2026
Backwards compatibility Officially confirmed (in principle) Xbox said next-generation consoles keep “compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games”. No detail on how, or on discs vs digital. Xbox Wire, Joe Skrebels, 19 June 2025 (Sarah Bond statement, also Gematsu, 17 June 2025)
Operating system Partly confirmed Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet said “Helix OS is being built on Windows”. He gave no detail on the interface. Pure Xbox, Fraser Gilbert, 21 October 2026 (quoting Van Vliet’s post on X)
Consumer release date Not announced Xbox has given no date. Xbox Wire, 11 March 2026
Handheld by holiday 2027 Reported “A next-generation handheld device by the 2027 holiday season.” Who makes it is not stated. Fortune, Sebastian Herrera, 20 October 2026; The Verge, Tom Warren, 20 October 2026
Console by holiday 2028 Reported Fortune says the next console is planned “by the holidays in 2028”. Fortune, 20 October 2026; Ars Technica, Kyle Orland, 20 October 2026
Console price Reported “Internally been projected” at $1,200 to $1,800, unless Microsoft subsidises the cost. A projection, not a price. Fortune, 20 October 2026; The Verge, 20 October 2026
Xbox and Windows teams clashed over the OS Reported, and disputed Fortune cites unnamed people. Van Vliet said the account “misrepresents both the technical work and the relationship between the teams”. Fortune, 20 October 2026; Windows Central, Zac Bowden, 20 October 2026 (updated 21 October)
Handheld price, specs, maker Not reported No outlet has reported any of these. The Verge, 20 October 2026
Price in £ Not reported Only US dollar figures exist. T3 converted the top figure to £1,344. T3, Rik Henderson, 21 October 2026
CPU, GPU, memory, storage specs Not announced Beyond the chip details above, nothing is confirmed. Xbox Wire, 11 March 2026
Other PC storefronts on Helix Not confirmed Sharma said “we’ll make those decisions going forward as a team and with our partners”. Game File, Stephen Totilo, 24 April 2026
Play Anywhere on Helix or a handheld Not announced No statement either way. Xbox Wire, 11 March 2026

The premium PC-console hybrid: why the price could be high

What’s confirmed is short. Xbox says Project Helix is its next-generation first-party console, built on a custom AMD chip, and designed to play both Xbox console games and PC games. Xbox’s CTO has said its operating system is being built on Windows. Every Xbox since the original has used Windows technology underneath, so that line on its own doesn’t tell us what Helix will look like on screen. Windows Central and The Verge’s Tom Warren both suggest it will follow that pattern, but that is their reading, not Xbox’s.

Why Microsoft may eye a higher price

Xbox has been unusually open about the cost problem. In a staff memo published on Xbox Wire on 10 June 2026, Asha Sharma and Matt Booty said the price Xbox pays for console storage was already more than double last autumn’s when Sharma joined in February, and has since doubled again. They expect another significant increase as Xbox plans for the 2027 holiday season, taking storage costs to over five times what Xbox paid two years earlier, with memory following a similar path. The same memo says Xbox needs “a new business model and partnerships for hardware as we remain committed to Helix”.

A fortnight later, Xbox raised current console prices worldwide from 1 August 2026 and noted that consoles “are typically not sold at a profit”. That’s the background to Fortune’s reported projection. It’s also why the “unless Microsoft subsidises it” line matters: the projection reflects what the parts cost, not necessarily what Xbox will charge.

Two other things are on record, and they pull in different directions. then Xbox president Sarah Bond said in October 2025 that the next-generation console would be “a very premium, very high-end curated experience” (The Verge, Tom Warren, 3 February 2026). But Sharma has also said she finds it “hard to imagine that mass audiences can afford thousands of dollars to spend on a console generation” (Polygon, Oli Welsh, 10 June 2026, from a Fortune interview), and told Game File there were “no promises around what the price points are”. Xbox has also expanded Buy Now, Pay Later and 0% financing options on eligible Xbox hardware today, but nothing has been said about whether they would cover Helix.

PC store integration: what Xbox has and hasn’t said

“Play your PC games” is the headline promise, but Xbox hasn’t said how. Here is what’s on the record:

  • In June 2025, Xbox said it was building an Xbox experience “not locked to a single store or tied to one device” (Xbox Wire, 19 June 2025). That was about the wider platform, not Helix specifically.
  • Xbox mode, which began rolling out to Windows 11 PCs on 30 April 2026, shows your Game Pass catalogue alongside installed games from “leading PC storefronts” (Xbox Wire, Jason Ronald, 30 April 2026). That’s Windows, not Helix, but it shows the direction.
  • When Game File asked Sharma about other PC storefronts on Helix in April, after a PC store operator had said in February that Microsoft was open to it, she said she “wasn’t part of those conversations” and decisions would be made “going forward as a team and with our partners” (Game File, Stephen Totilo, 24 April 2026). No store has been confirmed.

So for now, “open PC store integration” is something Microsoft has hinted at and not promised. We’d treat any claim that a specific store is coming to Helix as a rumour.

What about the specs?

Almost nothing beyond the chip details above is confirmed, and we haven’t found a reputable named-source report with figures. You may see claims online about specific processor generations or 4K frame-rate targets. They trace back to leakers, so we’re not repeating them. If a credible report appears, it’ll go in the table above with its source.

The 2027 Xbox handheld: how first-party and partner devices fit

The report: Fortune says Sharma plans to release “a next-generation handheld device by the 2027 holiday season”. It doesn’t say who would build it. The Verge notes it could come from a partner like Asus, which made the ROG Xbox Ally devices, or from Microsoft itself. Windows Central says it’s unclear too.

What Xbox has said:

  • In June 2025 Xbox said AMD would co-engineer silicon for “our next-generation Xbox consoles, in your living room and in your hands” (Gematsu, 17 June 2025, quoting Sarah Bond). That points to handheld hardware, but gives no date or maker.
  • In August 2026 Sharma described Helix as a “family of devices” (The Verge, Jay Peters, 28 August 2026).
  • Windows Central’s Jez Corden reported on 6 October 2026 that Sharma told staff in an internal town hall: “We will certainly have a great console first, but we also know that many players will be on the go. There are some things that we are the best in the world to manufacture, and there are other things that will we [sic] partner on.” That’s a leaked transcript, not an official release, so we treat it as reported (Windows Central, 6 October 2026).
  • Jason Ronald has said Helix “will be available as a 1st party Xbox console”, while not ruling out partner devices (Windows Central, 21 April 2026).

Where today’s handhelds fit. The existing Xbox handhelds are partner devices. Asus lists the ROG Xbox Ally at US$599, the Ally X at US$999 and the new Ally X20 at US$1,299 (ASUS press release, 15 October 2026, US prices only). Xbox mode debuted on those handhelds as an early version of Xbox’s console-style experience on Windows, according to Xbox Wire. AMD’s FSR Upscaling 4.1 is coming to them too, as we covered in our FSR 4.1 on ROG Xbox Ally story. Whether the 2027 handheld would replace, sit beside or build on those devices is not known.

What we don’t know: the maker, price, chip, screen, whether it would play Xbox console games natively, and whether it would support Play Anywhere. Fortune’s account of an Xbox and Windows disagreement over the handheld’s software is disputed by Xbox’s CTO, so we wouldn’t read anything into it yet.

My Take

I’ve already said I’d probably pay $1,200 for Helix because I’d have the FOMO (see Can’t Afford a $1,200 Xbox? Your Next Gen Might Be a Pack of Cloud Hours). That’s one view, and I wouldn’t build a plan around it. Here’s the longer version. This is opinion, and every price in it is a rumour.

Who would pay $1,200 or more? The buyer I can picture is someone who’d otherwise build or buy a gaming PC and likes the idea of one box under the telly that plays their Xbox library and their PC games. A big existing library helps, because backwards compatibility and PC games both make the box worth more. A Game Pass-heavy, console-only player is the opposite case: Series S and X are still on sale at much lower prices, and the Game Pass tier you pick matters more to them than the hardware. For UK readers, remember there’s no UK price. A straight dollar conversion won’t account for UK pricing or VAT, so treat any sterling figure as a guess.

What Microsoft must offer to make it work:

  • A clear backwards compatibility promise. “Compatibility with your existing library” needs to become a specific list or rule, including what carries over for discs and digital games.
  • A reason to pay more, shown early. At this price the box must do things a Series X can’t. If it’s PC games, Xbox has to say which stores and how well they run.
  • Play Anywhere and Game Pass that clearly carry over. If I buy a game once, I want to know it follows me to Helix and any handheld. Our Play Anywhere guide shows how much that already matters.
  • Flexible ways to pay. Xbox already offers Buy Now, Pay Later and 0% financing on eligible hardware. Extending those to Helix would make a four-figure price easier to live with, and so would the trade-in and refurbished schemes Xbox announced for current consoles.
  • A lower-cost way in. Whatever Helix costs, the cloud route has to stay credible. Our Xbox Cloud Gaming and playtime guide covers where that stands now.

The hardware matters, but I think the price will be forgiven only if the library story is simple.

What we still don’t know

  • A consumer release date for any Helix device.
  • The price of the console in any currency, and any handheld price.
  • Who builds the 2027 handheld, and whether it’s part of Helix.
  • Which PC games and stores will run on Helix.
  • How backwards compatibility will work, and whether Play Anywhere is supported.
  • Specs, storage and memory configurations.
  • Whether any of Fortune’s reported plans have changed since it published on 20 October.

Keep exploring

Sources

Official (Xbox, Microsoft, partners):

Reports and interviews:

Everything marked “reported” here is unconfirmed. Plans can change, and Xbox may announce something different. We’ll update this page as news breaks.

What would you pay for the next Xbox? Tell us on X or Facebook.

Written by

Duncan Baxter

Duncan Baxter runs Cloudy with Games and its YouTube channel from the UK. He covers Xbox news, what's joining and leaving Game Pass, Play Anywhere & Cloud support, and which games are actually worth your time. The Xbox 360 got him back into gaming, and he's been happily losing evenings to cosy games and Assassin's Creed ever since. Find him on YouTube and X at @cloudywithgames.

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