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Forums - Microsoft - Project Helix - The next generation of Xbox

HoloDust said:
curl-6 said:

Yeah in this economy I expect Helix will simply be too expensive to achieve mainstream success, even if by some miracle they can salvage the brand's tarnished image.

With AAA budgets having ballooned as much as they have, they will have basically no choice but to sell on Sony and Nintendo.

From my POV, it depends on whether MS is able to offer it at price that is significantly cheaper than equivalent PC (I'm thinking at least ~75%), which they should be able to offer. Given that they will be Steam-ready, I might not be inclined to replace all my PCs with it, but I'll be certainly interested to replace some of them with Helix.

Not sure how many PC gamers are thinking this way, but I guess there's some amount of us that do, in addition to actual XBOX gamers who have not migrated to PS and find appeal of continuing their XBOX experience, in addition to getting access to PC gaming.

I doubt many people would buy another Xbox system after how the Series went, or that PC players will be swayed in significant numbers.

I see Wii U/Vita numbers at most.



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HoloDust said:
curl-6 said:

Yeah in this economy I expect Helix will simply be too expensive to achieve mainstream success, even if by some miracle they can salvage the brand's tarnished image.

With AAA budgets having ballooned as much as they have, they will have basically no choice but to sell on Sony and Nintendo.

From my POV, it depends on whether MS is able to offer it at price that is significantly cheaper than equivalent PC (I'm thinking at least ~75%), which they should be able to offer. Given that they will be Steam-ready, I might not be inclined to replace all my PCs with it, but I'll be certainly interested to replace some of them with Helix.

Not sure how many PC gamers are thinking this way, but I guess there's some amount of us that do, in addition to actual XBOX gamers who have not migrated to PS and find appeal of continuing their XBOX experience, in addition to getting access to PC gaming.

Even if this plays out well, success from the PC market in this regard will probably not equate to much or at least not what we expect from the console space. Something like the steamdeck can be the talk of the town in the PC space but will struggle past 5m in 3 years of sales.

The PC market is huge in totality but its made up of many different configurations including school/work laptops, notebooks, workstations, more typical gaming rigs etc. No individual fixed piece of hardware is ever going to take a huge chunk of that pie, unlike with consoles. 

Xbox is no longer a trojan horse, there is no grand plan to reach 100m gamepass users etc, all of those ambitions hit their ceiling. There's no realistic reward in going back to Xbox exclusives or XBox+PC exclusives. I think the Helix is just a low investment consolidation of their hardware niche, whilst the software will be everywhere else and the real continuation of the Xbox brand.



curl-6 said:
HoloDust said:

From my POV, it depends on whether MS is able to offer it at price that is significantly cheaper than equivalent PC (I'm thinking at least ~75%), which they should be able to offer. Given that they will be Steam-ready, I might not be inclined to replace all my PCs with it, but I'll be certainly interested to replace some of them with Helix.

Not sure how many PC gamers are thinking this way, but I guess there's some amount of us that do, in addition to actual XBOX gamers who have not migrated to PS and find appeal of continuing their XBOX experience, in addition to getting access to PC gaming.

I doubt many people would buy another Xbox system after how the Series went, or that PC players will be swayed in significant numbers.

I see Wii U/Vita numbers at most.

I'm not expecting earth shattering numbers from Helix, but I think many underestimate appeal of having both console and PC in one box.

Otter said:
HoloDust said:

From my POV, it depends on whether MS is able to offer it at price that is significantly cheaper than equivalent PC (I'm thinking at least ~75%), which they should be able to offer. Given that they will be Steam-ready, I might not be inclined to replace all my PCs with it, but I'll be certainly interested to replace some of them with Helix.

Not sure how many PC gamers are thinking this way, but I guess there's some amount of us that do, in addition to actual XBOX gamers who have not migrated to PS and find appeal of continuing their XBOX experience, in addition to getting access to PC gaming.

Even if this plays out well, success from the PC market in this regard will probably not equate to much or at least not what we expect from the console space. Something like the steamdeck can be the talk of the town in the PC space but will struggle past 5m in 3 years of sales.

The PC market is huge in totality but its made up of many different configurations including school/work laptops, notebooks, workstations, more typical gaming rigs etc. No individual fixed piece of hardware is ever going to take a huge chunk of that pie, unlike with consoles. 

Xbox is no longer a trojan horse, there is no grand plan to reach 100m gamepass users etc, all of those ambitions hit their ceiling. There's no realistic reward in going back to Xbox exclusives or XBox+PC exclusives. I think the Helix is just a low investment consolidation of their hardware niche, whilst the software will be everywhere else and the real continuation of the Xbox brand.

I can only speak for myself, but as someone who's been primarily PC gamer since early 90s and didn't have anything XBOX since 360, Helix so far seems like a good product...again, if the price is right.



HoloDust said:
curl-6 said:

I doubt many people would buy another Xbox system after how the Series went, or that PC players will be swayed in significant numbers.

I see Wii U/Vita numbers at most.

I'm not expecting earth shattering numbers from Helix, but I think many underestimate appeal of having both console and PC in one box.

Otter said:

Even if this plays out well, success from the PC market in this regard will probably not equate to much or at least not what we expect from the console space. Something like the steamdeck can be the talk of the town in the PC space but will struggle past 5m in 3 years of sales.

The PC market is huge in totality but its made up of many different configurations including school/work laptops, notebooks, workstations, more typical gaming rigs etc. No individual fixed piece of hardware is ever going to take a huge chunk of that pie, unlike with consoles. 

Xbox is no longer a trojan horse, there is no grand plan to reach 100m gamepass users etc, all of those ambitions hit their ceiling. There's no realistic reward in going back to Xbox exclusives or XBox+PC exclusives. I think the Helix is just a low investment consolidation of their hardware niche, whilst the software will be everywhere else and the real continuation of the Xbox brand.

I can only speak for myself, but as someone who's been primarily PC gamer since early 90s and didn't have anything XBOX since 360, Helix so far seems like a good product...again, if the price is right.

The thing is, we live in a world where the cost of components has raised the price of even a base PS5 to $650; the Helix, from all reports, is going to be staggeringly expensive in this economic climate, to the point where price will likely prove too big a hurdle to all but the most well off diehards and enthusiasts.



curl-6 said:

The thing is, we live in a world where the cost of components has raised the price of even a base PS5 to $650; the Helix, from all reports, is going to be staggeringly expensive in this economic climate, to the point where price will likely prove too big a hurdle to all but the most well off diehards and enthusiasts.

I'll be interested to see whether they consider a reverse mid-gen upgrade situation. Right now I think they're going super high end to try and distinguish themselves and rebrand, whilst also removing themselves from the race. If the experience is great and it does well in its niche, maybe they will introduce a more efficent and weaker entry point system in 2029 or something when the actual general public maybe more interested in moving on from PS5/Series X...

I'm generally quite excited by MS being more freed up to explore different routes. I think the trouble with pricing now is that they have no interest in subsidising hardware  going forward. I think Playstation however will accept a loss on at least 1 version of the PS6.