Asha Sharma has been extremely active since she officially replaced the now-retired Phil Spencer at Xbox in late February. One of her earliest moves was discontinuing the "This Is an Xbox" marketing campaign, which had been widely mocked by fans. More significantly, she formally dismantled the Microsoft Gaming identity in favor of a unified Xbox-first structure, with Microsoft plastering the "Return of Xbox" slogan on its office walls.
On April 21, Sharma announced a cut to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate's monthly price from $29.99 to $22.99, while PC Game Pass dropped from $16.49 to $13.99. Simultaneously, new Call of Duty titles were removed from day-one Game Pass availability, with future entries joining the service only after 12 months. Following that big news, she was interviewed by Game File and admitted that the decision on whether to return Xbox to proper game exclusives was still being made.
Game File later posted the full transcript of the interview, which includes another newsworthy tidbit: Sharma confirming that the ongoing memory shortages will impact the pricing of Xbox's next console, codenamed Project Helix.
All of these things are an equation. Memory costs will impact pricing, will impact availability. As we think about being where the world plays, we will take that into consideration. So we're not ready to share a launch timeline right now. The world's pretty dynamic. My number one focus, though, is to focus on what's in our control, build a great console to play great games, including your PC games. All I can share is that we have development kits going out next year, and we're working really hard and have a lot to continue to do and a lot continue to learn. But we're really excited about Project Helix and the initial feedback that we're getting.
Of course, the impact was a given, but some Xbox fans certainly hoped Microsoft would be willing to bear at least part of the cost on behalf of consumers, in an effort to give the console a better chance in the market. Sharma communicating it so clearly from the get-go makes that unlikely.
Project Helix could cost up to $1,200, but it could also be worth as much as a $2,000 or $3,000 gaming PC, at least according to next-generation console leaker Moore's Law Is Dead. If you wish to know more about the upcoming Xbox console, check out a detailed overview of every confirmed info and rumor on this page.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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