Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has described Project Helix as a “family of devices,” offering another indication that Microsoft’s next generation will extend beyond a single traditional console.
Speaking during Gamescom 2026, Sharma said Xbox has been working on both a new generation and a wider family of Project Helix devices while continuing to push performance and blur the boundaries between console and PC gaming.
The wording builds on Microsoft’s existing public plans for Helix.
Project Helix was officially announced in March as Microsoft’s next-generation first-party Xbox console, with Xbox confirming that the hardware is designed to play both Xbox console games and PC games.
Microsoft has not yet detailed exactly which stores, PC titles or software environments will be supported, but the company has repeatedly described breaking down barriers between PC and console as a central goal for the platform.
Sharma’s new “family of devices” language broadens that picture.
It does not mean Microsoft has officially announced multiple Project Helix products, and Xbox has not revealed specific additional models, handhelds or third-party systems carrying the Helix name.
However, it fits closely with the technical strategy Xbox outlined at GDC earlier this year.
Xbox next-generation vice president Jason Ronald said Microsoft and AMD were developing a family of silicon intended to operate across a family of devices, with the goal of giving developers a consistent platform while allowing games to run across different hardware configurations.
Microsoft has also confirmed that a first-party Project Helix console will exist.
That clarification came after speculation that the next Xbox could move entirely toward hardware produced by external manufacturers. Xbox instead said Helix will be available as a first-party console, although that does not rule out additional devices around it.
The broader strategy is already visible elsewhere in Microsoft’s gaming business.
Xbox has been expanding its console-style interface on Windows and has increasingly emphasized Xbox Play Anywhere, cross-platform saves and entitlements that work between console and PC.
The ROG Xbox Ally line has similarly given Microsoft a way to experiment with an Xbox-focused experience on Windows-powered handheld hardware.
Helix appears designed to push that convergence considerably further.
Microsoft says its next-generation console will use a custom AMD system-on-chip developed around future DirectX and FidelityFX Super Resolution technologies.
At GDC, Xbox said Helix is targeting an order-of-magnitude improvement in ray-tracing capability while also using machine-learning techniques, improved rendering and more efficient hardware design.
Early versions of Project Helix hardware are expected to begin reaching developers in 2027.
Sharma has recently stressed that raw performance is no longer Microsoft’s only concern.
In a separate Gamescom interview with the BBC, she said Xbox must consider efficiency and affordability alongside performance because rising memory, storage and component prices are making console hardware increasingly expensive to produce.
Microsoft has not announced Project Helix pricing or a retail launch date.
Sharma also declined to say whether the first-party Helix console will include a disc drive.
Xbox has instead recently announced a disc-to-digital initiative designed to give owners of supported physical Xbox games digital entitlements, another part of Microsoft’s effort to make libraries work more flexibly across devices.
For now, the important development is the language Microsoft is using around the next generation.
Project Helix remains the codename for Xbox’s confirmed next-generation first-party console, but Sharma is now publicly discussing it in the context of a wider family of devices rather than as one isolated machine.
Exactly what that family contains remains unannounced, but Microsoft’s stated direction is becoming clearer: Xbox wants its next generation to span different hardware while bringing console and PC libraries closer together under the same ecosystem.
