At Gamescom 2026 in Cologne, a BBC journalist asked Xbox CEO Asha Sharma a simple question: will Project Helix be a discless console? Sharma declined to answer directly. What she said instead has the gaming industry reading between the lines.
“We’ve been hard at work on a great next generation and a great family of devices for Helix, and we’ll share more soon,” Sharma told the BBC.
A single word — “family” — and suddenly Project Helix looks like something significantly more ambitious than a straightforward Xbox Series X successor.
What Asha Sharma Said at Gamescom
Sharma’s comments came during what was otherwise a careful non-reveal. She confirmed Project Helix is still on track, reiterated that it will play both Xbox console games and PC games, and said Microsoft is targeting “affordability, efficiency, and performance” as the three pillars of the new hardware.
The discless question — a perennial concern for players with large physical game libraries — was sidestepped completely. “We’re not sharing more on Helix, I know you had to ask it,” Sharma said, before pivoting to the family-of-devices line.
Key quote: “We’ve been hard at work on a great next generation and a great family of devices for Helix, and we’ll share more soon.” — Asha Sharma, Xbox CEO, Gamescom 2026
What We Already Know About Project Helix
Project Helix was formally unveiled at GDC in March 2026, when Jason Ronald, VP of Next Generation Xbox, confirmed the console is “deep in development.” The details announced then were significant: the hardware will be powered by a custom AMD SoC — part of a multi-year strategic partnership between Microsoft and AMD — and will support both Xbox console games and PC games on the same device.
It also delivers what Ronald described as “an order of magnitude leap in ray tracing performance,” with intelligence integrated directly into the graphics pipeline. The co-design with AMD centres on next-generation DirectX and FSR technology, targeting both performance and efficiency gains over the current generation.
Developer alpha hardware is expected to begin shipping in 2027, with a consumer release widely anticipated for holiday 2027 — though Microsoft has not confirmed a date. Xbox Play Anywhere, which lets players carry their games and progress across console and PC, spans more than 1,500 titles and is clearly central to the Helix proposition.
What ‘Family of Devices’ Could Actually Mean
The most natural interpretation is a tiered hardware lineup — something analogous to the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, targeting different price points and use cases. But Sharma’s phrasing suggests she may be thinking broader than that.
Microsoft and AMD’s partnership explicitly covers “a portfolio of devices,” which hints at hardware beyond a traditional living-room console. Third-party manufacturers have reportedly been in conversations about building their own Project Helix-based devices — something Jason Ronald declined to deny outright, saying only that “Project Helix will be available as a first-party Xbox console.”
The ROG Xbox Ally handheld represents Microsoft’s first step into PC hardware. Project Helix’s ability to play PC games natively makes a future dedicated Helix handheld — or a range of OEM Helix-compatible PCs — a plausible extension of the “family” framing. Cloud-based options, addressing the affordability pillar without high-end local hardware, are another possibility.
When Will We Actually Find Out More?
Sharma’s “we’ll share more soon” is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Microsoft has been deliberate about managing the Helix reveal — each public appearance has added one new detail without resolving the bigger questions. The discless status, the full device lineup, the pricing strategy: all remain unanswered.
With developer alpha kits going out in 2027 and a probable holiday 2027 consumer launch, a proper reveal event — the kind that shows what Helix actually looks like and what it costs — would logically land in early-to-mid 2027. By then, what Sharma means by “family” should finally become clear.
For now, the next-generation Xbox is officially more than one thing. Whether that means two consoles, a console and a handheld, or something more unorthodox remains Microsoft’s most carefully guarded secret in gaming.
