Microsoft’s next Xbox, Project Helix, won’t reach alpha until 2027

Here we are at the 2026 Game Developers Conference, where Jason Ronald, Microsoft’s “Vice President of Next Generation,” is speaking about a topic near and dear to the hearts of many gamers: the future of Xbox. Ronald says the next Xbox, codenamed Project Helix, will feature a custom AMD chip with a “significant increase in raytracing performance” including path tracing, and a next-generation version of AMD FSR upscaling technology that relies on machine learning and includes frame generation — which can improve the perceived smoothness of a game by imagining new frames in between existing frames.

But don’t expect the next Xbox to appear anytime soon: Microsoft will start sending “alpha builds” of Project Helix to developers in 2027, Ronald revealed here at GDC.

Ronald also confirmed that Xbox and Windows They get closer to each otherPlus the fact that Project Helix will play PC games as well. “PC is becoming an increasingly important part of Xbox. We’re bringing the best of Xbox to Windows itself,” says Ronald.

Microsoft is bringing the Xbox Mode that originally shipped with the portable Xbox Ally to more Windows PCs “to select markets starting in April,” as well as Advanced Shader Delivery, which pre-packages shaders so you can download them alongside the game or its updates, rather than having to wait when you launch the title.

Ronald says the Microsoft team did a lot of work behind the scenes to make Xbox Mode “feel distinctly Xbox” and feel the same as moving between devices and the cloud. He says gamers are playing 3 to 5 games at any given time on average, and you should be able to pick up and play whether you’re using a console, PC, or the cloud.

We also spotted outside the keynoteMicrosoft wants game developers to build only once for both Windows and Xbox, instead of building twice for both. It creates a unified development environment where “the vast majority of the code your game runs on Xbox is the same code that runs on other platforms,” ​​says Ronald.

And while he doesn’t promise that all games will be this way, Ronald suggests that you won’t have to buy those games multiple times either: the existing Xbox Play Anywhere program lets you buy once and “play on any screen,” he says. Ronald says the Xbox Play Anywhere game catalog now includes more than 1,500 titles.

As part of Xbox’s 25th anniversary, the Game Preservation team will also be re-releasing an unspecified number of older Xbox titles under the Game Preservation Program, Ronald says. “As one of the largest publishers in the industry, we feel a deep responsibility to preserve the games of the past.” “Some of our most popular first-party franchises will be back this year,” he notes.

Does preserving the game mean classic Xbox games are coming to PC? An official summary of his remarks It makes it sound like this: “As part of our 25th anniversary later this year, we’ll be rolling out new ways to play some of the most iconic games from our past.” Ronald wouldn’t tell us when we asked him outside the venue, only saying that more news would come when Microsoft announces its 25th anniversary plans.

This news comes on the heels of Microsoft’s recent announcement of the codename for its next-gen console, Project Helix, which the company says will You will play both console and PC games. The Helix announcement was made by new Xbox head Asha Sharma, who has taken over as chief gaming officer at Microsoft In February. Former Xbox chief Phil Spencer and former Xbox chief Sarah Bond, who had been seen as a potential successor to Spencer, are retiring. She also announced her departure.

Last year, Bond hinted that the next-gen Xbox would be more like a PC and noted that it would be a “very distinct, very curated experience.” In her first note since the Xbox acquisition, Sharma promised a “renewed commitment to Xbox starting with the console,” and in her post about Helix, Sharma said the console “will drive performance.” This week, Sharma too I posted a photo From the original Xbox prototype, which Microsoft is showing off at the GDC gaming festival. We have pictures.