TL;DR: Microsoft confirmed its next-gen Xbox console yesterday, saying it will play both Xbox and PC games. It’s pitching it as the brand's triumphant return after over a decade of plunging sales. With the growth of cloud gaming and a similar machine from Valve on the horizon, a new era of platform-agnostic gaming may be coming.

What happened: Xbox has undergone huge leadership shakeups in the last month. Longtime gaming chief Phil Spencer retired and Xbox president Sarah Bond resigned in late February. The abrupt double departure led Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley to speculate that Microsoft was "sunsetting" its gaming division, calling incoming CEO Asha Sharma, who joined the company in 2024 to focus on AI, "a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night."

Yesterday, Sharma gave her reply with a major announcement: Not only is Xbox not going away, but its next console, codenamed Project Helix, will play both Xbox and PC games. It's a big swing for a brand that desperately needs a win.

Xbox’s long flop era: Microsoft's gaming console has tumbled from once-great heights. Just around 2.5 million Xbox Series X and S units sold in 2025, compared to roughly 17.4 million PS5s in the same window. Meanwhile, over 15 million Switch 2 consoles flew off the shelves last year after its release in June. Microsoft’s console heyday was the Xbox 360, released in 2005, which sold 85 million units in its lifetime. It’s been on a downslide ever since, accelerated by a drought of must-play exclusives.

The big question: The headline feature and some beefy rumored specs may whet appetites, but real excitement hinges on one thing: cost. There's no word on Project Helix pricing yet, and the Steam Machine—Valve's similar console—has been delayed as the company reworks its numbers around soaring RAM and component costs. Console prices could jump as much as 69% due to tariffs, per the Consumer Technology Association.

Are exclusives a thing of the past?: Exclusive games only available on one console have been a key strategy for selling hardware for decades. But Microsoft has been giving its own away. Recently, it even revealed that Halo, one of its most prized franchises, is heading to Sony’s gaming machine next.

The rest of the console makers aren't taking this same tack. Sony spent six years porting hits like God of War and Spider-Man to PC, but recently reversed course: Single-player PlayStation exclusives are staying put. Nintendo has never budged on locking down franchise titles like Mario and Zelda.

The console vs. PC war gets blurry: While Sony and Nintendo keep duking it out over exclusives, Microsoft and Valve will have to prove a cross-platform strategy can succeed. It's more consumer-friendly—you won't have to choose one platform or buy multiple versions of games (something cloud gaming subscriptions have been helping with for years). But console revenue still tops PC's, in part because it's a closed system: You'll pay the $70-$80 Sony and Nintendo charge for that new release (Pokémon Pokopia, anyone?). PC gaming, meanwhile, has countless stores vying for attention with frequent and steep discounts. But the timing is right for Microsoft and Valve to go all in on this tactic: Growth in PC gamers is outpacing consoles, with concurrent players on Steam hitting a record 42 million in January, compared to a record of 25 million in 2021.

What comes next: Project Helix could offer the Windows/Xbox store, or also welcome Steam, Epic, and other PC marketplaces as has been rumored. Microsoft will likely share more at the Game Developers Conference next week. Tariff math and limited access to components could continue to complicate launches for both Microsoft and Valve.

Bottom line: If the cross-platform gaming ploy can hit the right price, the era of buying a specific box to play specific games might finally be fading. Though, if Jeff Bezos has his way, we’ll all be renting gaming PCs from the cloud. —WK

From TSA to TMI

Just when we thought nothing could be worse than people around you having personal conversations on speakerphone, Tech Brew reader Susan from Rye, New York, shared her experience with someone who took it to the next level by using FaceTime in public.

During the government shutdown, the security line at JFK was at a standstill. With TSA PreCheck lanes closed, hundreds of us were packed together in a slow-motion shuffle that felt like it would never end.

For two hours, I was stuck directly in front of a man in his fifties who decided the entire terminal needed to be part of his new relationship. He spent the entire wait on FaceTime with a woman half his age, holding his phone at arm’s length so everyone could see.

It wasn't just a quick call; it was a full-volume romantic performance. We listened to him cooing and asking her to show him her outfit, completely oblivious to those of us surrounding him. He treated his iPhone like a megaphone for his private life, turning our collective misery into a background track for his date.

Maybe the real travel essential these days isn’t noise-canceling headphones, but rather a little self-awareness. Because if you’re going to broadcast your love life at gate B23, just know the rest of us didn’t buy tickets to the show. —CM

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If you’ve ever wondered how Neil deGrasse Tyson would describe Mercury in retrograde, wonder no longer. Grammarly’s Expert Review feature is happy to give it a shot.

The AI writing tool, which was announced last August, is catching heat for playing fast and loose with real people’s identities. The pitch is simple: Upload a piece of writing, and the tool critiques it from the perspective of subject-matter experts—alive, dead, or fictional. Think J.R.R. Tolkien, Albert Einstein, Judge Judy, or even Sherlock Holmes—all weighing in on how to improve your prose.

You can probably spot the issues from orbit. First, when we fed it a number of, ahem, questionable claims about the solar system and Mercury being in retrograde, the AI Tyson didn’t “well, actually…” the bold assertion that there are 13 planets in the solar system, nor the theory that Mercury could knock six of them into a black hole. His only advice: Translate cosmic jargon into familiar metaphors. Which, fair.

But accuracy isn’t really the point (or necessarily what the tool is designed for). The bigger issue is that none of the “experts” in Grammarly’s tool actually signed up to be there. A company spokesperson told Wired that the model merely “provides suggestions inspired by the works of experts.” Whether that clears the legal bar is an open question. The ethical one is easier: Critics say the feature amounts to AI ventriloquism, putting words in the mouths of real people, including those who are no longer around to object. Just don’t ask AI Socrates for his take. —WK

Chaos Brewing Meter: /5