You still believe in the dream? The Verge artjcle makes it sound like it’s pretty far away still. Then again. We’re only in March and late next year isn’t exactly soon, so I probably shouldn’t read too much into that. But if for whatever reason they don’t make holiday 2027, I can’t really see them going for early in 2028 or even mid.
I guess it depends on when the final devkits arrive.
Microsoft’s timeline for next-gen was always 2027-2028 for them and PS6.
Yeah, RDNA5 isn’t readly until laste 2027 so having devkits with it isn’t going to start that much sooner. End of NEXT year is a long time away, still.
Yeah, so apparently it was a very similar timeline with the Xbox Series X. The console was revealed at the Game Awards in 2019 and Dev kits released sometime in early to mid 2020 (with a record of them being certified in South Korea in June). The console then released in November. 2020 was also a very shaky year with COVID affecting supply chains and even canceling GDC and E3, so Xbox had to pivot reveal plans. In comparison Project Helix should have a smoother time and Xbox seems more confident with them presenting to developers a year ahead of time. We even got an official statement on Xbox Wire. A 2028 launch would probably make the marketing teams at Xbox sweat because that’d be a longer hype cycle and likely lead to less sales and more confusion.
Certainly, seems like the messaging is clearer and better.
Sounds like the play anywhere push is now becoming the normal dev environment, as has been discussed on here.
Final development kits coming late is nothing new & happend with the 360, One X & Series consoles RARE was using Alpha kits to show off its 360 games at E3 2005 & Xbox One X final kit’s shipped out in the same year Xbox One X launched in 2017
The new system is coming late next year IMO & simply can’t wait. Just would like to see Xbox go back to the striking design of the original 360 or maybe something like the Xbox One S . For the console to stand out a little bit & hopefully be in piano white.
Hopefully this time, Halo will be ready for launch lol
I’d be VERY surprised if the next mainline Halo gets a 2027 launch date. We know Halo Studios is working on multiple projects, but if Campaign Evolved is just coming out this year then it’s unlikely the full next mainline Halo would be next year. Maybe a smaller spin off. Mostly likely just like a next gen patch for Campaign evolved.
We haven’t had a new mainline Halo game for 5 years & it should have been 6 if not for the need for a graphical upgrade. How much more time, does the team need?
Yes, they’re working on other projects, but one would guess that’s been outsourced & the Halo studio HR count is pretty massive, outside of a Ubisoft team
The team hasn’t exactly been working on the next Halo since Halo Infinite launched. What makes you think that they were? They’ve gone through major layoffs, budget cuts, and literally changing the entire studio name and engine. Plus Halo Infinite was originally meant to be a very long term live service title with consistent multiplayer content updates and campaign expansions.
They said they have multiple Halo games in development with the studio name change in 2024, but that was at the end of 2024 and they also said they were still HIRING developers for their projects. Again I’d be VERY surprised if we see the next mainline Halo as early as next year. If not a little concerned with that turnover. They might have something else to stave off the weight, but the next mainline Halo really REALLY has to hit, and I think everyone involved knows that.
With ps raising their prices and the recent rumors of 1,000usd helix, I’m actually more convinced we are guaranteed a $500 option next gen by xbox and ps.
The console industry would just implode if they didn’t. xbox and ps need a healthy user base to survive but so does every game developer out there. With all the closures going on now, there still aren’t enough consoles out there to support them. Imagine significantly less with a 1,000 entry point.
I know this all flies in the face of chip, ram, memory, whatever component prices are today. I’m just saying whatever their plans are, they must have included flexibility to give them better options on hw pricing.
If they can’t get a next gen option out there for $500 or less, then they should really hold off until they figure it out.
xbox figure out the series s this gen at 400 usd which is assumed to be at least break even. That makes me think proj helix was designed to overcome these pricing issues. End of day, whoever figures this out has a huge opportunity to sell a lot next gen.
The previous generations are still there though - games will just be cross-gen for longer if the consoles are beyond most people’s price ranges.
This generation may continue to be sold for quite a bit longer too, compared to previous gens.
Let’s face it there’s not huge differences between what last gen and this gen could do - sure we’ve got faster load times, better upscaling and the addition of some ray tracing, but overall many of the games we play are similar to last gen, to the point many of the most impressive ones have been back ported.
I wouldn’t be surprised if in 2030 we’ve got some people on new gen, loads on this gen and many still on PS4 / One generation consoles
Great points. Totally agree new gens are done taking big technological leaps like the used to. (this is one of the reasons I find helix so interesting. Big changes to the platform itself, more stores, pc hybrid, etc) All very complicated. I just have a feeling in the helix master plan they cooked up, it has solutions to offer a product at an affordable price point. jez has said as much.
My point was more like, can they replace a 400 series s with a 400 helix? I don’t know much about computer parts, but why not. Can they replace a 600 usd series x with a 600 helix? Then add in the big boy for 1,000 plus.
I wish I understood how games scale up or down on hardware like this. A few people on this forum have tried to explain it to me. But if the dev makes one version and the console takes over from there and makes it work based on the machine playing it, then that is a huge advantage over the traditional consoles that need bespoke versions for all these devices.
Assuming that this will play Steam games, I wonder if there will be some sort of deal made where Microsoft will get a 5% or something from games sold on Steam through Xbox Helix, because you have to assume a ton of PC gamers will buy this just for Steam considering the power it will have at something like 1000$-1200$, which is a steal considering how expensive high end PCs are, we’ll see.
I don’t see valve giving a cut in sales through helix. Microsoft will have to win pc gamers over with features and ease of use
Unless they like put Steam front and center, Xbox gamers upgrading to Helix will likely just stay within the Xbox ecosystem and storefront. If they really wanted to hop over to Steam and PC then they’d have done so when Xbox started day and date Steam launches. As for PC gamers, even if they buy Helix intending to stay on Steam then that’s still an entirely new audience for Xbox consoles that previously never bought an Xbox before. If we’re assuming consoles in general are done subsidizing then Microsoft won’t be taking losses, and it works out for them if the onboarding experience & default is Xbox. They’ll capture some sales, game pass signups, and can more organically grow their pc ecosystem while maintaining their console customer base.
Something they could do is send every current Xbox owner a special offer for XYZ amount off the sticker price. Then it’s cheaper for more loyal fans that are likely to stay within the ecosystem. Depending on how all the tech insanity is (shortages) Microsoft could also just straight copy Valve and do a staggered release for Helix where for the first year only people who have had an Xbox account in good standing that’s at least a year old can purchase a Helix console. Maybe they’d also make that first run slightly cheaper. Then after that first year they can make them more available but also raise the price to match the market.
I thought it would be like the Sonic Team @SEGA. Where you have the core team working on new entries in the mainland series, while the rest of the lines also help out & coordinate updates, spin-offs in the series too.
One would have liked & hoped to see a sequel in late 2027 to a game 1st shown off @ 2018/ Not that’s a major issue for me, as I can’t wait for the new console anways 
I’d hope for the same, but we really just don’t know. 343 was hit hard with layoffs in the years prior and even Halo Projects in the works from partner studios like Crystal Dynamics got canceled. We know they’re building back up and trying to prevent another situation where the entire studio is struggling to service a single game. It remains to be scene if, how, or when they’ll achieve that.
