Helen Chiang, Xbox’s first ever chief operating officer, has left Microsoft after just over three months in the job. The news comes via an internal memo from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, first reported by The Verge on Friday 23rd October.
The memo was surprisingly short. “Helen Chiang is leaving Microsoft today. I’m grateful for her years of service and wish her well,” Sharma wrote, according to The Verge. Because Chiang was leaving that same day, her immediate responsibilities are being split between other Xbox leaders for now. “We’ll share more on COO leadership as plans are finalized,” Sharma added.
What Microsoft has said
The reason for the exit hasn’t been given. Xbox vice president of communications Kari Perez told The Verge: “We don’t discuss individual personnel matters. We’re grateful for Helen’s years of service and wish her well.” We couldn’t find the memo published on Xbox Wire at the time of writing, so the wording comes from The Verge’s report, which GamesRadar+ and Gematsu have since relayed.
The Verge’s Tom Warren notes that the wording suggests the COO job itself isn’t going away. He also says the short memo, and the fact that Chiang’s duties were handed out straight away, make it look as though this wasn’t a resignation. That’s The Verge’s reading rather than anything Microsoft has said.
From Minecraft to the COO job
Chiang spent 21 years at Microsoft. According to GamesRadar+, she joined Xbox in 2007, moved to the Minecraft team in 2014 and became studio head and then corporate vice president of the Minecraft franchise in 2020.
Sharma promoted her to COO on 6th July, as part of the restructure she called “Resetting XBOX“. In that memo, which was published on Xbox Wire, Sharma described the COO as a first for Xbox, with “end-to-end P&L responsibility across content, hardware, platform, and services”. Chiang would “bring our businesses together under one operating model”, Sharma said, and report directly to her. The same memo announced around 3,200 job cuts across the 2027 financial year and moved Mojang and King to report directly to Sharma. Dave McCarthy, who had been at Xbox for 17 years, retired.
More layoffs rumoured
Chiang’s departure comes amid reports of further cuts. The Verge says there are rumours that Xbox is preparing more layoffs this month, in November and in January. GamesRadar+ points to a recent Fortune report claiming three more waves of layoffs between now and January 2027. Neither claim has been confirmed by Xbox, so treat them as unconfirmed for now.
We’ll update this story when Xbox says more about who takes over the COO’s duties.
