XBOX Will Keep Project Helix's Price in Check by Innovating, Says CEO Asha Sharma

XBOX CEO Asha Sharma is overseeing the next-gen XBOX Project Helix console‘s development, so it is obvious that she is the right person to answer all the questions about it. While the XBOX team has been tight-lipped about the next-gen console, the CEO has previously hinted that it won’t be immune to memory crunch. In other words, players should be ready to pay an expensive price for the next-gen console.

Well, XBOX now says that will apparently “innovate” to keep Project Helix’s price in check. Putting it simply, the CEO doesn’t want the Project Helix conversation to start and end with a massive price tag.

During a recent Bloomberg Tech interview, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma addressed growing concerns that the next-generation Xbox could become prohibitively expensive as hardware, storage, and component costs continue climbing across the industry. Rather than accepting higher prices as inevitable, Sharma suggested XBOX’s focus is shifting toward finding new ways to keep future products affordable.

The comments offer one of the clearest hints yet about how Xbox is approaching its next hardware generation. When asked whether gamers would still be willing to pay for an expensive next-generation Xbox, Sharma made it clear that simply raising prices isn’t the answer.

I think it’s expensive if we do not innovate.

She expanded on that point by acknowledging the financial pressures affecting the broader tech industry.

It’s natural that prices go up, every generation around us is raising prices, but I don’t think you can raise prices through the hardware crisis that we’re seeing, and so it will require fundamental change in terms of how we innovate and how we think about the business models and how we bring this to market, and we’re working on that.

While Sharma wasn’t ready to reveal specific details about Project Helix, she did offer a glimpse into XBOX’s current priorities.

The biggest challenge and opportunity is how do you make affordable products during that time, and that’s what the next 100 days is going to be about.

Not to forget, XBOX has confirmed that more Project Helix news will be shared later this year. Though the company didn’t mention the timing, we hope XBOX teases a bit of what it’s doing behind the scenes at the upcoming Games Showcase.