XBOX’s Jason Ronald says Project Helix is a console that plays PC games, not a PC that plays console games. Here’s more on the design goal.
As XBOX celebrates 25 years since the original Microsoft console launched in 2001, attention is shifting to the next generation of XBOX hardware, code-named Project Helix. In Microsoft’s special 25 Years of Play magazine, VP of Next Generation Jason Ronald outlines the philosophy behind the next Xbox console.
Project Helix Is a Transition, Not a Generation Break
Courtesy of a breakdown of Destin’s article on YouTube, scanned quotes from Jason Rowland highlight the mindset behind the console. It has long been known that Helix was meant to bridge console and PC gaming, but XBOX is now clarifying that Helix will be console-first and can play users’ PC games—not the other way around.
Specifically, XBOX singled out Generation Alpha as a target audience, noting that this generation has grown up with multiple touchscreen devices and is used to accessing everything across platforms.
We’re very clear on the design goal: Helix is designed to be a console that is also capable of playing games from your PC. It is not a PC that can also play console games. The goal is making it easy, intuitive, and instant to access my games. But if you’re a hardcore gamer or a power user who wants to have that deeper level of customizability across settings and performance options, you can absolutely go do it.
I think player behaviors are fundamentally changing. Historically, people would define themselves: ‘I’m primarily a console gamer,’ or ‘I’m a PC gamer,’ or later, ‘I’m a mobile gamer, a handheld gamer.’ And now, the reality is that players expect their experiences to work across many different screens.
When you think about Generation Alpha, those players grew up in a world with smartphones, touchscreens, multiple devices, and streaming services. So this idea that their content is locked to any one individual device is completely foreign to them; when you look at that generation, they apply those same expectations to games.
Project Helix Will Focus on Curated, Creator-Led Games
Ronald also noted that the next generation will focus heavily on curated, creator-led game development.
Today, we have mods or user-generated content. But I think the barriers of creation are going to come down; moving forward, we’re really going to move into [a world where] the players are going to have much more agency, and they’re going to have much more control over the experiences. They’ll create stories in these worlds, and they’ll share them with other players. And I think that’s just going to be a new way that people play.
There is still no set release window for the next generation of Xbox hardware. However, rumors suggest XBOX could launch a new handheld in 2027, with the new console arriving in 2028.
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I'm Robert DeFelice. I spent years covering pro-wrestling industry for outlets such as Fightful. After years in wrestling journalism, I’ve transitioned to video games, another passion of mine.
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