Xbox boss Asha Sharma has been appearing as part of a new interview with Fortune, and one of the topics she addressed was that of consoles and where they might be going in the future.

Sharma spent some time talking about how component prices and shortages are causing a "crisis" for hardware makers right now, and therefore Xbox "must think about other options" for "cost construction" going into consoles.

"We are in a crisis right now, the entire industry is..."

"We must think about other ways to think about the cost construction of the console. We must think about how we create different plans so more people can participate in the console. We must think about partnerships that will allow us to have better distribution and reach. And we must think about the experiences that we're creating outside of that as well to reach new audiences.

The Xbox CEO then went on to suggest that we'll see "radically different business models" for consoles in the future, instead of just a focus on creating the "most premium, high-performance console in the world".

Xbox's Project Helix console, of course, is expected to be an example of a "premium, high-performance" system.

"I think that we will continue to look at new business models. I think [that] is what is needed for console rather than just the most premium, high-performance console in the world. I think we've 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'll start to see radically different business models that we never expected start to come into orbit later this year."

Later in the interview, Sharma reiterated that she's excited for Xbox Project Helix and that it's a console that'll allow you to play your PC games as well, while also featuring backwards compatibility and "leading performance".

At first glance, it feels like her comments could be hinting at some kind of Xbox Series S successor for the next generation too - at least at some point down the line. Nothing like that has been announced, of course, but it would certainly help to avoid "mass audiences" spending "thousands of dollars" on the next console generation.

We'll have to wait and see! You can watch Asha's interview above, and give us your thoughts in the comments below.