It’s been over 5 years since we stepped into the “next generation” of gaming with the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. And, relying on who you ask, the decline of the Xbox has been pretty obvious as the continuing rise of Xbox Game Pass and the provision of the console’s “exclusives” on PC — and fairly quickly PlayStation, too — has solely grown due to the corporate’s broad method to supporting a number of platforms. However, it appears Xbox is not fairly able to step away from {hardware}. Rather, the subsequent Xbox console will break new floor, as Microsoft says it cane play PC and Xbox video games.
While rumors have been swirling for months at this level, we have lastly been given our first actual style of what to anticipate from Microsoft’s subsequent Xbox. Recently-appointed Xbox CEO Asha Sharma shared on X immediately that the brand new console, codenamed Project Helix, will “play your Xbox and PC games,” and that the gaming firm plans to share extra about what it’s and what to anticipate at GDC later this month.
And that is the kicker. We nonetheless know so little in regards to the subsequent technology of Xbox consoles. Sure, there are many rumors, however with the continuing chip scarcity and skyrocketing RAM costs — they’ve gotten so dangerous that future laptops setups might utterly change — a extra gaming console that probably doubles as a PC might assist customers justify the acquisition and Xbox justify the worth.
PC video games are coming to the subsequent Xbox
Most of the rumors we have been seeing over the previous few months started in 2025, when Microsoft shared the primary particulars about its plans to launch an Xbox-branded model of ASUS’s ROG Ally. The ROG Xbox Ally X was an attention-grabbing tackle Xbox gaming, not solely providing entry to PC video games, however letting customers play Xbox video games, too, as long as they’d a PC model. And that is the place it ceased to be an Xbox, because it could not play Xbox-only video games natively.
Of course, the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X have been simply a part of the “This is an Xbox” marketing campaign, through which the corporate highlighted all the gadgets able to enjoying Xbox video games by way of the cloud. Plus, with the Xbox ROG Ally seeing the success it did at placing the Xbox UI on a transportable Windows gadget, it does not appear all that far-fetched that the corporate will take the subsequent logical step of constructing its subsequent console extra of a PC, too. In reality, we’re already seeing different corporations develop living-room pleasant PCs with the reveal of the Steam Machine from Valve. Then there’s Xbox’s continued partnership with AMD. In a video celebrating the settlement, from June 2025, Sarah Bond, former President of Xbox, appeared to indicate that next-generation Xbox consoles wouldn’t be tied to a single retailer.
While the ROG Xbox Ally cannot play native Xbox video games, Bond assured followers that would not be the case for its future consoles. And if Microsoft does lean totally into making something and every part an Xbox, then it’s going to essentially change the how we play. Thankfully, we can’t have to attend lengthy to search out out extra, as GDC kicks off on March 9, 2026.