Xbox Project Helix could cost $999 to $1,200, report suggests

Xbox’s upcoming Project Helix console is likely to have a price point somewhere between $999 and $1,200.

That’s according to tech journalist Moore’s Law is Dead, who has been reporting for some time now on Xbox‘s next system and its console/PC hybrid setup long before it was officially confirmed.

Microsoft announced last week that its next-generation games console is codenamed Project Helix, and that it will run both “Xbox and PC games”, something Moore’s Law is Dead (and others) had been reporting since last year.

Now, in a stream where he discusses various topics with his viewers, the tech reporter restated his belief that Helix will be more powerful than PS6, but that it will come at a price, noting that Xbox’s announcement last week said it would “lead in performance”.

“Maybe they’re wrong, but I don’t think they are,” he said. “I think Sony‘s going for a more PS4-like approach next-gen, and Xbox is… well, they’re building a bridge out of the console market, and so they’ll probably charge $1,000 or more for this thing.”

Breaking down his justification for this price, he claimed that the next system will use tech similar to the successor to AMD’s 9070 XT graphics card, and that the continued price of RAM will also affect the total cost.

“I have a document that directly says AMD wants their successor to the 9070 XT, that uses the RDNA5 AT2 die. AMD has directly said in a document they’re targeting $550. Now, who knows what that really means, where prices will be, maybe that’ll end up being $650 next year.

“But if the graphics card itself, which uses the same chiplet [Helix] uses and uses the same type of RAM, is – let’s say it’s $600 – well, then what? You need to add more RAM for the Xbox. Alright, well, what would that really be? Like, another $200 there. Then the CPU die for Xbox [Helix] is more expensive than obviously the output die that would be in the graphics card. But even then, you know, it’s not that big of a die. Even though it’s 3nm, another $100.

He added: “If Microsoft wanted to sell this thing at cost, they could probably do so at around $900 if it was mass-manufactured at a large scale. So anyone who thinks it’ll be $2,000, I don’t think the BOM cost [total cost of parts] suggests that.

“However, I do expect them to make at least a small profit on it. And so, my estimate would be that if Xbox wanted to be kind of aggressive, they would go for $999.

“And that will look like a lot to most people, but it just will depend on who you are, because right now they’re already, what, selling the Xbox Series X 2 TB for $800? They’ll say, ‘hey, that was $800″ – even though it stopped selling effectively at that price, so it’s not really a good point – but they’ll say ‘this is $200 more and this is…’  I mean, I don’t know what would it be in performance compared to it, it’s going to be just wildly faster.

“So, I will say that I think expect at least $1,000. If they wanted to be crazy aggressive, I could see $900 and most likely I could see $1,200, but I don’t think more than $1,500.”

Later in the video, Moore’s Law is Dead analysed the cost more and how it would compare with PS6, which he believes will be less powerful.

“I think they could get to a BOM cost of maybe $900 where they have $100 of fat on it, because they will want to profit off of this for sure. And in that world, I think they could hit $999. I still kind of suspect they’ll do $1,200 and at most $1,500, but I think $999 would send a message.

“They’d be like… you know, whatever they end up being, I don’t know… ‘we’re 20-30% faster, maybe 40%, who knows, than the PS6, and we cost that much more, but it gets you all these features Sony doesn’t get. You’re just paying more for more, but then also you’re paying more for more performance. And then also, we have this other stuff.

“A lot of people will still just get the PlayStation. Most people will, I think. But for people who want to go to PC gaming and had an Xbox, I think that’ll be a compelling argument at $1,000 and probably still even at $1,200. Once they get to $1,500, I do think that’s when people will start to riot at Microsoft, and I would recommend that even if they have to profit on it for this console to make sense, they don’t go completely out to lunch on what they charge.