As part of Xbox’s 25th anniversary celebrations today, we were treated to a new digital version of a magazine that was given away at Seattle FanFest earlier this week, available in full on the official Xbox Wire website.
What’s getting the most attention is Xbox Project Helix – the new next-gen console currently in the works at Xbox HQ. Next Generation Brand Vice President Jason Ronald shares tons of new information across four pages of the magazine, helping to give us a better idea of what to expect from the next console.
There’s one section in particular that’s getting all the attention on social media right now, where it clarifies that Project Helix is definitely a console that can play PC games, and definitely not a PC that plays console games.
“We are very clear on the design goal: Helix is designed to be a console that is also capable of playing games from your PC.
Beyond that, Ronald talks in depth about many other aspects of what they’re aiming for with Project Helix, and as mentioned, there are so many details that they span four pages of the magazine.
However, in an effort to highlight as much as possible, we thought we’d transcribe all of the magazine’s most notable quotes below, while you can read the additional context inside the magazine article itself.
Here are other key takeaways from the magazine article:
“When we think about Project Helix, it’s really designed to be the ultimate gaming machine – a machine that removes every gaming barrier that has existed historically. My entire library is accessible to me. I can take four generations of my Xbox library and progression with me and make it available instantly. And we remove the arbitrary constraints between console and PC gaming.”
“We don’t think the next generation is defined by 8K or 240 Hz, or some traditional metrics. It’s more about gameplay innovation. It’s about deeper immersion. It’s about taking advantage of new technical advances, like neural rendering, to deliver a new level of visual fidelity in a more efficient and innovative way. It’s about new types of games and new gaming experiences that we haven’t been able to do before. What excites me about the future is the idea of entirely new types of games that have never been possible before, thanks to all the silicon, hardware and platform innovation we offer.
“When I think about what makes a console magical, it’s that it makes my games instantly accessible and ready to play in an instant. I don’t have to worry about updating my operating system, updating drivers, configuring different settings – things like that. The hardware and the experience are entirely designed around the game.”
“The very first conversations about next-gen that we had were with all of our first-party studios. That was absolutely fundamental to the design of what we did with Project Helix – talking about the direction they saw for the future of game design, the direction they saw for the future of their franchises, and what was limiting their creative ambition.”
“With Xbox One, I think we’ve focused so much on expanding our reach that we’ve lost sight of what’s truly magical, which is gamers, developers, and the games they love. We need to build the best platform for game developers to convey their creative vision.”
“The other thing, and I think this is something that’s unique about Xbox, is that we have to be connected to the community. A lot of the features that people love and expect from Xbox have actually been directly driven by community feedback. I think that’s really at the heart of the soul of Xbox, because if you’re in touch with your player base, you’ll never go wrong if you’re focused on their needs.”
“It’s certainly a challenging time, but as a systems and platform designer, it’s also one of the most exciting times, because we have to invent entirely new technology to continue to advance the state of the art while continuing to make things accessible and affordable.”
“That’s one of the main reasons we’re really focusing on advancements like neural rendering, because it’s a whole new way to generate an image without requiring more computing power, additional memory, etc. I think you’re going to see more innovation in the next three to five years than you have in the last 10 years.”
“The ROG Xbox Ally was really an opportunity for us to learn alongside our player base with a lot of these concepts and ideas that we had: being able to play libraries from multiple different storefronts, understanding how PC games and console games can appear together in a unified library. The feedback we received from players fundamentally informed and changed our plans for how this will actually appear in a future console. Players shared where we hit the mark and areas we needed to improve or “To approach Ally differently is a precursor to what we’re doing with Helix – but it draws on a lot of design concepts we have for Helix.”
Sorry for the wall of quotes, but we thought you might be interested in all of this! That’s not even the full extent of what Ronald had to say, as he also touched on the importance of preserving games for the Xbox platform in general, as well as how Project Helix will apparently have a bespoke UI, but one that still looks familiar to Xbox fans.
Of course, we’re still waiting for concrete details on what Helix will look like, how much it will cost, how big the PC integration will be, and many other things that will give us a much better idea of how it’s going to develop.
It looks like we won’t get that this year, and if rumors are to be believed, Xbox might even release a first-party handheld in 2027 before the Project Helix console in 2028. Who knows… plans can always change.
For now, let us know what you think of this latest information about the Xbox Helix project below, and we highly recommend reading the full Xbox 25th Anniversary magazine for yourself – we wish we could buy one to be honest!
Gn tech
