As of last week, we finally had a name to slap on Xbox's next piece of hardware. Project Helix is the console that could well be Xbox's last foray into the world of major hardware releases. That is, if one insider is to be believed, as they reckon this could be an odd, niche product that can excuse the green team waving the white flag in the console race for good.
Insider SneakersSO, who previously reported on Xbox going multiplatform months before it was revealed, has spoken pretty extensively about Project Helix over on Neogaf. Responding to some hopes for more exclusives with this new-gen Xbox, SneakersSO said there's no way "to put the genie back in the bottle," and that exclusives simply won't work for what Project Helix is meant to be.
"The problem is, we are thinking about this as if its a next console and console generation - its not," SneakersSO wrote. "This is basically a PC that uses the Windows Full Screen Experience (FSE) that we just saw in the Rog Ally X to emulate a console experience. The 'native' Xbox SKU, that had an updated build target that developers were building games for, that's going away, or rather - there's no Xbox Helix build target, its just a UWP build. You're just shipping a game for the Windows Store. You still have access to your Xbox library thanks to BC emulation, but as far as having a 'native' Xbox console SKU you built your game towards, that's done."
"It's a set-top box version of the Rog Ally X, only its been engineered by MS, will be pretty expensive, and is being made for a very niche audience. Anyone thinking this is meant for a mass market target audience just has not been paying attention," the insider continued. It was also pointed out that this has nothing to do with the new Xbox boss Asha Sharma, as she was brought in after funds had already been committed to Helix, meaning she has been burdened with seeing it through to the end.
"They are under no illusion this is gonna be some Xbox 360 moment. That doesn't mean it can't be cool and satisfy their die-hards," SneakersSO said. If that's what Project Helix is, then it'll be enough to satisfy the Xbox fans who only want to buy an Xbox. However, the people that want the old-school console warfare days will be left behind, as it seems there's no revolution coming with Project Helix, and Xbox knows it's out of the race.