Microsoft reportedly projects $1,200 to $1,800 price for 2028 Project Helix
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/report-microsofts-project-helix-planned-for-2028-at-1200-to-1800-price/Open linkView original on lemmy.worldSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on lemmy.worldhttps://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/report-microsofts-project-helix-planned-for-2028-at-1200-to-1800-price/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
107 replies
Fuck yourself to death, Microsoft.
If I’m paying that much for a device, I damned well better have root access. I’m done buying machines that big corpos control.
I’ll bet they do this like a phone plan. Bundle the console with GamePass, and give folks a 3 year contract that is broken into a combined monthly payment for the cloud service and a hardware payment plan.
they did that with the previous Xbox,called it the all access pass. It was the unit combined with gamepass ult which you had for the duration of the two or three-year payment plan I understand their thought process on it because it does do a good job at forcing the consumer to have a subscription they normally wouldn't have, but in reality, the only thing it did was make it so I didn't purchase any actual games for the unit, so when their overpriced subscription finally ran out, I had no reason to continue using the console, and it's basically collected dust since because all of the games I would have purchased, I had already played via Game Pass Ultimate, and I had no hard copy games to play.
To be fair, it would’ve helped if they had compelling games worth playing. There was a brief minute when X / S users were feasting, but a lot of the studios MS bought turned into dud factories.
but MS turned the studios they bought into dud factories.
--ftfy
yea that's fair as well, I just didn't see the point in playing a console that I didn't have anything left to play on.
I can relate. Mine basically just became a Destiny 2 box. And that’s only because that’s where I first bought and downloaded the game. I could play that game on a number of platforms.
Looks like you’ll never pay that much for a device ever again
Living in a multi-gamer household currently with nine gamers. We would be looking at around $15k to get everyone the new Xbox when it comes out!?
I can't even anymore.
Even without that price tag, I think at 9 gamers in one household, it might be time to learn the concept of sharing
We all like to play together, but yes we share 4 xboxes currently and also have a couple of desktops, non-gaming laptops and tablets. We will use phones/tablets for jackbox games so we can all play together. We also like to play Fortnite and we will rotate players.
Just keep playing what you are playing now. It does not get worse just because a new overpriced console comes out
Oh I know. I am a patient gamer, I was just postulating what it would cost if we "upgraded".
Honestly, I am probably moving towards building more PCs rather than updating to the next Xbox.
I project Microsoft can lick my taint. They bought up all the studies, shut down most of them, cancelled all the good games, raised prices, forced AI into everything, want to abandon physical media and lock us in to their digital store and have a monopoly on pricing... And they still can't release a console at a reasonable price. 🖕 Microsoft has abandoned gamers, let them suffer when the AI bubble pops.
It’s super-duper awesome that they were kind enough to pass all the cost down to us.
Moores law hasn't been a thing for over a decade. It's just the AI industry consuming all the compute
Also, Moore's law wouldn't be. areason for prices of existing hardware to go up
and apparently MSFT has more than $80b in GPUS sitting idling in warehouses since they haven't built (if they ever do) the data centers to run them.
Trickle-down, right?
Oh, it was supposed to be the gains...?
You can buy a cheap guitar for about £100. Beats Guitar Hero
Or you could turn to a life of crime. Beats Grand Theft Auto
Goat Simulator fans please contact the furry community for advice
I'm only afraid that Gamers will actually fucking buy it, and Microsoft (and others) will learn that gamers will keep buying consolee for almost 2k dollars, and then future consoles will never go down in price. Just like it happened with graphics cards, when Nvidia learned that gamers would buy 2x Titan class gpus (which were not supposed to be a gaming card), and then discovered they could sell a 90 class for 1500+ dollars (and going up with each generation) and the fuckers would still gladly buy it, and that they would also still buy cards with prices inflated at 200~300% values during the crypto boom.
It's okay by the time its released us regular people won't be allowed to exist.
"Xbox is partnering with Klarna..."
Who the fuck has money anymore. Trump can get fucked!
Looks like console gaming is just admitting its strategy is to soak their shrinking player base for as much as possible before they collapse.
Signs that the corporations look at the video game market as no longer a growth market but a mature market.
"No point in trying to bring more people into the market since exponential growth can't be achieved. Time to milk the players for every dollar they have." -Some Video Game executive.
And the indies and AA's will rise from the ashes
I predict it gets canceled.
I suppose if the AI bubble pops, and memory and CPU prices crash, then maybe it will happen. But, that's going to be very hard on the entire economy, so maybe it will be canceled for that reason, instead.
Good luck, they barely sell the current one at a fourth of that price, wonder how many dozens can sell of this DRM machine
No thanks I'm good I'm not gamer anymore.
Retro is where it's at
“Retro is where it’s at” is just the polite way of saying the current model is broken. You’re not disagreeing with me. You’re agreeing and pretending it’s a different argument.
I think they were making a related statement rather than directly challenging your argument. Similar if someone says "modern Windows sucks" and the reply is "Linux is where it's at"
Anything not an explicit agreement is an explicit argument. No exceptions. /s
Oh you love pancakes? You must hate waffles then.
Bold choice to disparage toast so savagely. You will have your comeuppance!
It’s not just the economic model that’s pushing people to retro, it’s the creative direction as well.
For some of us the kinds of games we like just aren’t made much now. Which has been partially influenced by monetisation but there’s been a shift in taste too.
Um, that's okay, you can keep it! Why do old people have to ruin the fun?
The “old people ruin the fun” line only works if the critique is wrong. Games you don’t own, 100GB downloads, forced online, and unfinished launches at full price isn’t “fun.” It’s just the current business model. Pointing that out doesn’t make someone old. It makes the people defending it sound like they’re allergic to basic ownership. Keep the SpongeBob meme though. It’s doing more work than the argument.
That's only if you only play 'AAA' corporate lowest common denominator slop.
No discs, no sale.
The people demand UMDs!
My 7900 xtx must last forever.
I'm still rocking a Pascal GPU from Nvidia. Shit's not even officially supported driver-wise anymore, but it's only getting more dear to me, especially with all the news.
My 7800xt is fine. What worries me is my 5600x.
I feel like it's starting to show its age.
At least you could potentially upgrade to an am4 3d chip without needing a new motherboard.
Does it massage my balls as well for that price or....
Xbox Elite ControllerRRRRrrrr..
No thanks, going to stick with my gaming PC I got like 4 years ago.
Yeah, my steam deck still works fine for most games. And when steam deck 2 comes along, I'll be ordering one immediately.
AI companies ruin the RAM and video card market, so no one runs 200GB models for free.
This ruins the new-game market on PC and consoles.
AI allows people to spin copies of games
Next up,
All consoles fail
All console makers stop letting people have binaries
Gaming as a service AGAIN
No, AI companies ruin the RAM, Storage, and video market so no one can compute independently, and they all have to stream cloud services which can be monitored by AI, gatekept without the possibility of piracy (or first sale doctorine), unhackable/unmodable, and rented forever.
This is way bigger than gaming. What happens when they can predict markets? What happens when they can move markets? When journalists get silenced, when inconvenient truths are hidden?
Why wouldn’t they when we are so dependent on it?
They've been able to move markets for years. High frequency trading bots have caused several flash crashes.
One guy did it on his own from his house in London
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35863848
Guess i'm done with video games for the next...forever
Streets of rage 2, Chrono trigger, Mario 64, burger time, Tekken 3, burnout paradise all could probably use a higher play time before whatever the next m$ slop shooter cash shop they publish or anti consumer hardware
I don’t think I could ever be done with video games but I’m done supporting the (current) video game economy besides supporting the second hand market. Luckily for me I don’t care at all about cutting edge stuff and I prefer to play PSX, PS2, and N64 games. There are still so many classics from those consoles in my backlog I haven’t even got to yet.
At that price (which will probably be closer to 2k CAD) I think my console gaming life will be over. It was a good run from NES to now.
Steam deck is looking more and more appealing or just build my own computer again
My OG 64GB LED Steam Deck (bought for under $300 years ago) handles 90% of my gaming. I upgraded it to a 2tb drive a couple years ago and it was well worth it.
I'd pull the trigger sooner rather than later, I don't see prices coming down anytime soon.
Oh don’t worry. Fanboizz will still buy it and will say “This changes Everything!”
LMAO
Atp just buy a computer
Project helix will be a computer with a locked bootloader and gaming only os
I will not consider it a computer if you cannot change freely the OS (even tho it is technically), Macs might have more freedom than that shit...
I'd say that is the distinction between a computer and a personal computer.
The avarage person does not think about the difference so i just remove the term computer directly
With these sorts told prices being rumoured I’m not sure how viable this next generation is going to be.
Disposable incomes are dwindling, future economic prospects look…uncertain to put it positively. Parents especially sleek unlikely to spend 4 figures on a console when their kids already have phones.
Without a disc drive as well. Nah, I'm good
What I'm looking forward to seeing is how many scalpers that will buy it on the first day.
It would be kind of awesome if the scalpers paid the ridiculous sticker price for these, and then nobody bought them from the scalpers because nobody actually wants the goddamn thing.
That's what will happen. But it's likely they will also think 2k for a digital brick might not be the best thing to do with how expensive everything is.
And how no effort will be made to stop.them.
I think the effort won't be necessary. We're already discussing how 1200-1800(2000 after tax) is sounding insane. I think the argument for how a N64 costing $250 adjusted for inflation has lost it's value. We didn't have cellphones, internet plans (ok maybe aol), fees at every corner, a mountain of subscriptions, and whatever else is going on now. And there's no used game stores now--I mean for these digital bricks.
So it's time to sit back and eat some popcorn.
So fucking glad I built a PC in 2023.
6 years ago I would have said that was nuts, but 6 years ago I bought 32GB of DDR5 for $100... now the same sticks are $500+, so I feel like this is just the new normal and I'm just going to go back to my retro systems with carts and systems I actually own.
My Sega Genesis still works like a charm, and humans still make new games for it occasionally
And then you plug in your Everdrive and a new world opens up!
I’ve got one for the Genesis, now I need one for my SNES, and one for my NES
Just went back to check on two sticks of 32GB I bought in 2024 for $215. The same two sticks are listed for $1600.
They could charge 12 dollars, I'm still not buying it.
I wouldn't buy that for a dollar!
For $1 though? I might. Disable updates, keep it offline, wait for the first jailbreak and then do whatever you want with the hardware
Thank you for your cooperation!
If this is the price... Maybe would be nice to have a way to install SteamOS on the console. Or better install any Linux so I can use as a working station and a gaming gig.
It’s funny that you think in 2028 Microsoft is going to let you install any OS you want on any hardware they sell.
Brother in 2028 the only hardware you will be able to buy will stream all your software from the cloud for a rental fee. They’re coming and taking away computing.
I don't want to live in this world xD
To be honest, I'm learning how to repurpose all my hardware, even my old android tablets I'm figuring out how to make something useful from it. Even it's just to have a local hosted Wikipedia.
Let me check between my couch cushions...
oh people are going to buy the shit out of this. Guaranteed. We can all boycott here, I know I'm not going to buy one, but Microsoft don't care. Want to know what Microsoft sees?
It's a win win for them. Personally I think most people are going to happily line up at the slop line and eat up.
This whole project seems like a load of hot air to appease investors. It got the spotlight right when Asha took the reigns 7 months ago and even now we know exactly jack shit about it, despite supposedly launching next year. But it's estimated to cost 1200-1800 based on...vibes I guess, because we don't even know what form it will take.
How about I just seed every piece of IP they release
Things must be tough because consoles are typically sold at a loss. Then again with the current steam machine success not selling at cost maybe they are planning on trying the same?
The way hardware prices have been increasing, this might still be a price point that has them selling at a loss by the time 2028 rolls around, so there's that.
I'm having a hard time imagining not being able to build a PC from last Gen parts for $1800 that can't run games fairly well.
You might still well be able to do that by the time 2028 rolls around, but it wouldn't surprise me if you couldn't build one that runs the sort of AAA games that have been used to set consoles apart from PC, and certainly not with the same ease. You or I might well be able to put together such a PC with minimal fuss, but the very idea of buying and assembling components to build a PC is a non-starter for most of the market. It's more work than it's worth to them if they need to do that, rather than just buying something ready made off the shelf. And if they decide they can forgo the big budget console selling titles for this one, they would probably just do better to fire up GOG, Steam, or the market of their choice and run the games on the computer they already have. There's no reason to plunk down $1200 on a new computer, if you're only going to be playing stuff like reissues of games from previous generations and indie titles.
Targeting Gen X
Wouldn't surprise me at all looking at the Ally. Not to mention the new PS6 being projected >$1k.
If people pay that I will scream into a pillow.
ya no pc gaming forever. Consoles are too locked down.
I wonder how long will it take for someone to figure out a way to install SteamOS on it?
I still hate that I bought the series x, it's an over priced piece of garbage
HAH. Best of luck.
lol.