The world has today been subjected to yet another oddball Asha Sharma profile in a mainstream outlet, and while there's nothing left to say about how pointlessly fawning these pieces are (though this one does at least raise some critical questions), there is something to say about some reporting on Microsoft's next console (codenamed 'Helix') tucked away within Fortune's piece.
It's not pretty:
As it stands, the price of the Helix console has internally been projected to cost consumers between $1,200 and $1,800, unless Microsoft decides to subsidize the cost.
When you combine the rolling impact of a cost-of-living crisis, the diminishing visual and performance returns from each console generation since the original Xbox, the scarcity of Xbox-exclusive games as AAA costs spiral out of control, the prospect of even more layoffs at Microsoft-owned studios (something the Fortune article also reports) and the poor sales performance of the Series S/X, which launched at just $499, you are looking at a business proposition that's so cataclysmic it's insane to me that Microsoft is even still committed to the idea of this console, let alone speaking about it publicly.
There is no timeline or universe where, given the economy and industry that we're operating within, that a $1200-1800 console is anything but a historic disaster. Even a "subsidized" $1000 machine (and it’s important to note many consoles have been subsidized by manufacturers previously) would cost twice what the current Xbox console launched at.
It's been less than a month since I published a joke post about Sony and Microsoft's only path to survival in these tumultuous times being re-releasing old consoles, but if these companies are serious about dropping four-figure hardware on an ailing market, then maybe it's not such a joke post after all.
