{"id":915447,"date":"2026-06-25T20:12:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T01:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/25\/xbox-teases-radically-different-business-models-to-make-consoles-more-affordable\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T20:12:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T01:12:48","slug":"xbox-teases-radically-different-business-models-to-make-consoles-more-affordable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/25\/xbox-teases-radically-different-business-models-to-make-consoles-more-affordable\/","title":{"rendered":"Xbox teases \u2018radically different\u2019 business models to make consoles more affordable"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<h2>Xbox chief Asha Sharma is acknowledging that gaming is becoming too expensive for many people<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><img width=\"2560\" height=\"1439\" src=\"https:\/\/production-static.mobilesyrup.com\/uploads\/2025\/02\/xbox-series-s-carbon-black-20231215-header-2-scaled.jpg\" alt decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  ><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Xbox says it\u2019s looking into ways to make consoles more affordable amid rising hardware costs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=o0hMSekk4XE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">During a\u00a0<em>Fortune\u00a0<\/em>live event<\/a>, Xbox boss Asha Sharma talked about the current \u201ccrisis\u201d that Xbox and the wider tech industry are facing.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"To the Next Level\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o0hMSekk4XE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a shortage of memory and storage, and the costs are exponential. They are usually at this point in the generation, about 50 per cent of the cost, and we\u2019re seeing they\u2019re up 2.75x, they\u2019re up 50% since they started, they\u2019re going to be up effectively 7.5x,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Because of this, she acknowledged the importance of offer more affordable options for consumers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we\u2019ve reached a point where it will be hard to imagine that mass audiences can afford thousands of dollars to spend on a console generation, and so I think we will start to see radically different business models that we never expected start to come into orbit later this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of these options that she floated was companies offering flexibility when it comes to storage and memory, noting that developers will have to \u201capply new techniques\u201d to compress all of this. \u201cWe will have to empower new types of games so they can fit on device,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n<p>This seems to suggest offering multiple console models with different storage capacities of varying prices. It also could imply that Microsoft is looking to lean even more on its slowly growing Xbox Cloud Gaming business so consumers can stream games to reduce storage constraints.<\/p>\n<p>These comments are especially notable from Sharma because they offer some insight into Xbox\u2019s thought process going into the next console generation. In March, the company confirmed that its next console, <a href=\"https:\/\/mobilesyrup.com\/2026\/03\/05\/xbox-project-helix-pc-games\/\">codenamed \u201cProject Helix,\u201d<\/a> will play both Xbox and PC games. And last year, then-Xbox president Sarah Bond <a href=\"https:\/\/mobilesyrup.com\/2025\/10\/22\/xbox-premium-next-gen-console\/\">teased a more PC-like experience with the new console<\/a>, suggesting it could be inspired by <a href=\"https:\/\/mobilesyrup.com\/2025\/10\/15\/rog-xbox-ally-canadian-review\/\">the Windows-powered Xbox devices like Asus\u2019 ROG Xbox Ally handhelds<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As it stands, there\u2019s been no official word on when Helix will arrive, although <a href=\"https:\/\/mobilesyrup.com\/2026\/02\/04\/amd-next-gen-xbox-2027-launch\/\">AMD corroborated rumours earlier this year that it\u2019s set to release in 2027<\/a>. But of course, the constantly fluctuating state of the tech sector could delay those plans.<\/p>\n<p>This comes after <a href=\"https:\/\/mobilesyrup.com\/2026\/06\/07\/xbox-games-showcase-2026-trailer-round-up\/\">Xbox had a big showcase<\/a> during <a href=\"https:\/\/mobilesyrup.com\/2026\/06\/09\/canadian-games-summer-game-fest-2026\/\">Summer Game Fest<\/a> over the weekend in which it showed off games like Vancouver-made\u00a0<em>Gears of War: E-Day,\u00a0<\/em><em>Halo: Campaign Evolved,<\/em>\u00a0<em>Persona 4 Revival<\/em> and<a href=\"https:\/\/mobilesyrup.com\/2026\/06\/07\/xbox-series-x-25th-anniversary-console-controller-november-2026\/\"> a special 25th anniversary Series X and matching controller<\/a>. During that event,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/xbox-console-exclusives-are-strictly-about-console-releases-xbox-exec-affirms-games-will-still-show-up-on-all-the-normal-places-where-we-sell-the-pc-version\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> the company stressed that it\u2019s returning to console exclusives<\/a> following many multiplatform releases, starting with <em>E-Day\u00a0<\/em>in October.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=o0hMSekk4XE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fortune<\/a> Via: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.videogameschronicle.com\/news\/xbox-is-exploring-radically-different-business-models-to-make-its-next-console-affordable\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">VGC<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3J3VJYp\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> Bradly Shankar <br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/mobilesyrup.com\/2026\/06\/10\/xbox-tease-radically-different-business-models-more-affordable\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Xbox chief Asha Sharma is acknowledging that gaming is becoming too expensive for many people Xbox says it\u2019s looking into ways to make consoles more affordable amid rising hardware costs. During a\u00a0Fortune\u00a0live event, Xbox boss Asha Sharma talked about the current \u201ccrisis\u201d that Xbox and the wider tech industry are facing. \u201cThere\u2019s a shortage of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":915448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91771,1505],"tags":[7423,5511],"class_list":["post-915447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-radically","category-teases","tag-radically","tag-teases"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}