A new report claims that Microsoft will launch their new Xbox console in 2028 – but it could set you back as much as $1800.
- READ MORE: Has gaming outpriced the average player?
Last year, former Xbox boss Sarah Bond said “the next-gen console is going to be a very premium, very high-end curated experience.” She also said the new Xbox would “deliver the next generation of graphics innovation [and] unlock a deeper level of visual quality, immersive gameplay and player experiences enhanced with the power of AI.” The comments about a “very high-end” experience sparked rumours that the new Xbox could cost as much as $1000.
In March, new Xbox chief Asha Sharma officially confirmed that the new console would be known as Project Helix and said she was hoping to make it “affordable”.
A few months later though, she admitted that Microsoft were struggling to keep the costs down due to a “hardware component crisis,” known by many as “RAMmageddon”, with the cost of memory chips rapidly increasing as more resources are being used in AI data centres. Sharma also told Fortune that the next generation of Xbox might not offer “the most premium, high-performance” because “we’ve reached a point where it will be hard to imagine that mass audiences can afford thousands of dollars to spend on a console.”
However a new report from Fortune claims that Microsoft is currently looking at charging customers between $1200 and $1800 for Project Helix consoles, though they might decide to “subside” that cost.
I love XBOX, however $1800 is fucking outrageous for a console gawd dam
It better come with a tv, gaming chair, free pizza, and sum sloppy toppy for that price https://t.co/SOvIrMxGT8
— Zay
(@DoomsdayZay) October 21, 2026
The article also claims that Xbox is planning a “major overhaul” of Game Pass that would have players choose which features they want to pay for. “Sharma also plans to release a next-generation handheld device by the 2027 holiday season and the next console by the holidays in 2028.”
In an open-letter shared earlier this year, Sharma spoke about the rising costs of making new Xbox consoles. “When I joined as CEO in February, the price we paid for console storage components was over 2x as high as we paid last fall. These costs have since doubled again. And as we plan for the 2027 holiday season, we expect another significant increase, taking us over 5x the prices we paid only two years earlier. Memory costs have followed a broadly similar trajectory,” she explained.
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that Xbox consoles would be getting more expensive for the second time in 18 months. Last May you could get the 512GB Xbox Series S, which launched in 2020, for £249.99. The exact same console will now set you back £429.99
Nintendo also raised the price of the Nintendo Switch 2 by $50 in response to “various changes in the market environment” while Sony has increased the cost of the PlayStation 5 twice in the past year.
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