Sources say that Xbox's next-generation console, Project Helix, will be difficult to price below $999 but not exceed $1,500.

Tech Home March 7 News, according to foreign media Tech4Gamers today, Xbox is betting heavily on the next-generation console Project Helix. Many industry insiders believe that if this console encounters market failure again, Microsoft might even completely withdraw from the console business.

To compete with Sony’s PlayStation 6, Project Helix must have a sufficiently attractive price. But some leaks suggest that the price of this console is unlikely to be below $999.

The latest news from leaker Moore’s Law Is Dead states that the theoretical minimum price for Project Helix is $999(Tech Home note: the current exchange rate is approximately 6,910 RMB). If Microsoft does not adopt an aggressive subsidy strategy, the price could even reach $1,500(the current exchange rate is about 10,375 RMB).

The leaker cites sources saying that AMD’s next-generation GPU, intended to replace the 9070XT, is expected to cost $550, and will use the same chiplet architecture as the RDNA5 graphics card in Project Helix. Adding about $200 for memory and about $100 for CPU costs, the total minimum price of the console can only be pushed down to $999(the current exchange rate is about 6,910 RMB).

However, Moore’s Law Is Dead believes that Microsoft is unlikely to sell the console at near-cost prices, so Project Helix is more likely to be priced around $1,200(the current exchange rate is about 8,300 RMB), with a maximum possibly reaching $1,500.

The leaker also thinks that even if the next-generation Xbox performs 30% to 40% better than the PS6, more players might still choose the PS6. The potential users of Project Helix are likely to be players who originally used Xbox but are considering switching to the PC platform.

In terms of hardware, AMD’s new GPU is expected to significantly narrow the graphics performance gap between PCs and consoles. Compared to Xbox Series X, Project Helix’s ray tracing performance is expected to improve by 20 times, and the RDNA5 architecture will also increase the performance of each compute unit by about 65%.