Microsoft's internal math puts its next Xbox console at $1,200 to $1,800. That's not a typo, and it's not a rumor pulled out of nowhere either. It's what Ars Technica says Fortune reported after digging into a profile of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, and the number apparently comes straight from Microsoft's own projections.

Here's the actual plan, as far as anyone's pieced it together: a handheld version of "Project Helix" lands by the end of 2027, then the full console follows for holiday 2028. Eurogamer frames it as two devices shipping under one codename, which tracks with what Microsoft has already teased, a box that plays both your Xbox and PC games. Fortune's reporting is the only outlet with eyes on an actual document here, and everyone else, including the YouTube channels colteastwood and Tyrone Magnus, is running with that same number.

Microsoft could still eat some of that cost through subsidies, the way console makers usually do when a launch price scares people off. But even the low end of $1,200 would be the most expensive console debut in the business, and that's before you remember the Xbox Series X still starts at $750 six years in. OhNoItsAlexx isn't wrong to call that price a problem for everyone, not just Microsoft, since a flop at the top drags the whole market's expectations up with it.

I've already written up one version of this number this week, back when it was a leak with no shape to it. Now it's a leak with a release window attached, which is progress, technically. Microsoft gets to keep making promises about 2027 and 2028. I'll start caring the day one of those promises has a price sticker I can actually afford standing next to it.