Microsoft has posted a set of photos giving us a small teaser for some unspecified work-in-progress Xbox hardware.
Three photos were shared on the official account for Game Development at Microsoft over on X. The caption simply reads: “Xbox at GDC. Sneak peek.” As for those photos, they show a console shell with the letters “XDK” embossed on the side. These letters denote an Xbox Developer Kit.
You can check out the photos as shared by Microsoft below.
Many have pointed out that the images look remarkably similar to an Xbox One dev kit (one commenter said it all looks like a “dvd player from 2007”, which made me chuckle), though some are also hopeful it could be a little preview for Xbox’s next generation console, codenamed Project Helix.
This particular bit of Xbox kit was first teased earlier this month, when Microsoft’s newly-announced gaming CEO Asha Sharma shared a brief but key update on her social media account.
“Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games,” Sharma said at the time, before adding she was “looking forward to chatting about this more with partners and studios at my first GDC next week”.
So, today’s images are clearly meant to help generate a certain amount of hype for Project Helix, even though Microsoft hasn’t definitively said this is what the pictures actually show. I have popped a quick email over to Xbox to ask for more information, and will update if I hear back.
As for Sharma, she was announced to be taking over from Phil Spencer following last month’s shock news that the Xbox head would be retiring from Microsoft after nearly 40 years with the company. Sarah Bond, who many had presumed would eventually succeed Spencer, also announced she would be leaving Xbox at this same time.
For more, be sure to check out our Chris’ feature on everything happening with Sharma’s new role at Microsoft: The future of Xbox is vague and contradictory, with just a glimmer of hope.