The next-gen Xbox won’t cost you $1,800. It can’t. Can it?

According to the publication’s Microsoft insiders, the next Xbox is projected to cost between $1,200 and $1,800 when it arrives in 2028. The next-gen Xbox won’t cost you $1,800. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella echoed that idea on the Hard Fork podcast: “No one can accuse Microsoft of not having invested for the last 25 years, and now we have to turn this into a sustainable business.” It isn’t just new management that’s hinting at no more subsidies: Bond primed the pump for a $1,000 box when she called Helix “a very premium, very high-end curated experience” late last year, comparing it to gaming PCs like the $1,000 Xbox Ally X handheld. Microsoft knows the same is true of some Xbox buyers, because it helped ship an unfinished $1,000 Xbox Ally X handheld even before the RAM crisis, and the $1,300 Xbox Ally X20 follow-up is already sold out.