Official Xbox pricing update has gamers worried

Published June 12, 2026, 3:00 a.m. EDT

Sean Migalla (he/him) is a writer of nonfiction and fiction with a bachelor’s degree in television from Columbia College Chicago. He is a lifelong fan of video games, having started on an NES as a child and continuing to play ever since. Sean also has a great love for all things tabletop gaming, especially TCGs and TTRPGs.

As the next generation of consoles approaches, we recently got a glimpse of the potential price range for the next console. Xbox system. Currently called Propeller Projectit seems the next console was supposed to have a pretty hefty price tag. Comments from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma hint at prices not seen in any previous generation. Several factors come into play here, creating a potentially high price for the system.

In a message to Xbox employeesSharma writes about the problems encountered during the development of new consoles. According to Sharma, the rising costs of storage components have forced Xbox to spend twice what it previously spent, and she suspects that will soon increase to five times. In an interview with FortuneSharma discusses the impact of AI data centers on component costs. She also drops a bit of a bombshell when she alludes to the idea of consoles costing “thousands of dollars.”

In the context of the interview, Sharma said that Xbox will have to pivot its current strategy, because she doesn’t think gamers will be able to afford such an expensive console. Although this will hopefully mean that the Helix project, whatever it is, won’t be as expensive. However, that hasn’t stopped gamers from being nervous about a console costing a thousand dollars or more.

In a Reddit thread discussing Sharma’s comments, players speculate on what the original Helix project cost maybe. A user, HeartInTheSun9, even speculated that it “should have been much closer to $2,000”, if it was meant to mimic the power of a gaming PC. Another user, paqman3dagrees that “[t]there’s no way it’s not close to $2,000,” given the increasing component costs.

Now that Xbox is moving away from such an expensive console, gamers are concerned about tactics that could be used to cut costs. User skar220 They share the concern that there will be “subscriptions everywhere” as a way for companies to recoup some of the losses they face to make consoles more affordable.

JTMx29 suggests what seems like a reasonable solution, asking Xbox to “abandon the PC hybrid” that was the original concept of Project Helix. While this would likely help reduce the cost of the components needed to create the new console, it would also mean losing what made it revolutionary in the first place.

As AI data centers continue to become more prevalent, driving up component costs, it’s unfortunately true that we can probably expect more of these types of negative impacts in the gaming world. Xbox isn’t the only company that will feel the pinch from this price hike, and those costs will likely be passed on to gamers in the form of more expensive consoles. As AI becomes the villain of another story, I think it’s worth asking whether things like LLMs are really worth the negative impact they have on people’s livelihoods, and now their hobbies too.