Shift Up chief technology officer DongKi Lee has publicly asked Microsoft to send development kits for the Xbox Helix, the next Xbox console, to South Korea as early as possible. Lee made the request on November 9, during the closing panel of the Console Game Developers Conference (K-Console Conference) in Seoul, with a senior Xbox executive in the audience.
According to a translation by South Korean site Inven Global, Lee said: "Personally, I am looking forward to the next-gen Xbox 'Helix'. From an engineer's standpoint, if you provide us with a dev kit first in Korea as early as possible, we will put in our best efforts to develop for it."
The request is not a game announcement: Shift Up has not confirmed any title for Project Helix or for current Xbox hardware. It is a statement of interest — the studio wants to be among the first to receive development hardware when Microsoft starts distributing it.
The panel in Seoul
Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida moderated the panel, which featured, besides Lee, Katsuhiro Harada (Tekken), Kazutaka Kodaka (Danganronpa), Paweł Sasko (Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red) and Tynan Sylvester (RimWorld, Ludeon Studios). Moments earlier, Harada had joked that, with an Xbox executive in the audience, he feared Microsoft might repeat the Series S formula with a lower-powered "Helix S" — read Geekiki's coverage of Harada's criticism of the Series S.
What is Project Helix
The next Xbox goes by the codename Project Helix. Xbox vice president of next generation Jason Ronald said in March 2026, during GDC, that the team is deep in development and plans to ship alpha versions of the Xbox Helix hardware to developers beginning in 2027. The console will use a custom AMD SoC and is designed to play both Xbox console and PC games.
Stellar Blade beyond the PS5
Shift Up launched Stellar Blade as a PlayStation 5 exclusive on April 26, 2024, brought the game to PC on June 11, 2025, and released its Complete Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 on November 5, 2026. According to Lee, the studio plans its games for multiplatform from the start and develops in a PC environment first.
Shift Up revealed the sequel, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, at Summer Game Fest in June 2026 and will self-publish it — which leaves the platform decision entirely in the studio's hands. No platforms or release date have been announced, and a Helix version is not confirmed.
Editorial classification: this article reports a statement — a developer's interest in receiving development hardware for the next Xbox. It is not a Microsoft announcement, nor confirmation of Stellar Blade (or its sequel) for Project Helix.
Image credit: official Stellar Blade artwork, by SHIFT UP CORPORATION, via PlayStation.
Sources: Notebookcheck; Pure Xbox; ixbt.games — original panel report and translation: Inven Global.
Transparency: this article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence, cross-checking public posts and internet sources. We recommend consulting the original sources cited to confirm the details.
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