Helen Chiang had been at Microsoft since 2005. She spent over a decade overseeing Minecraft, the company’s most important gaming franchise, and survived this year’s big Xbox “reset” with a promotion to the role of the gaming division’s chief operating officer. Barely three months later she’s suddenly out at the company she called home for more than two decades, followed by tons of speculation about whether she was fired or not. Chiang now says she’s breaking her silence to set the record straight.
“There has been some speculation about my abrupt departure from Microsoft, including claims that I was “fired for a policy violation,’” she wrote, referencing a report last month from Eurogamer alleging she was fired for a “policy violation.” “That’s not accurate and while I won’t turn this into a play-by-play, silence should not be mistaken for agreement. What has been said about my departure, and what has been left unsaid, has created a picture of me that I hardly recognize. It’s important to me to set the record straight.”
Chiang went on to say that she never leaked confidential company information to the press or went outside of company-authorized communication channels. She said she also did not leave the company for a competitor, nor did she “engage in discrimination, bullying, harassment, insider trading, embezzlement, or other fraudulent activity.” Chiang added that her past results and record speak for themselves, and did not leave the company because of being passed over for a bigger role. The chief operating officer role had not been something she’d lobbied for.
“I believe in fairness, accountability, and holding ourselves to the standards we expect of others,” she wrote. “Those standards only mean something when they’re applied consistently. I have serious concerns about how they were applied in my case, and I believe those concerns deserve to be taken seriously. I share this because I don’t want my departure reduced to an inaccurate story about incompetence, ambition for the next big job, or a Nelson-level scandal. My story is about staying true to your core values, especially when it is hard. That’s the legacy I hope to leave behind.”
“We don’t discuss individual personnel matters,” a spokesperson for Microsoft previously told Kotaku regarding Chiang’s departure. “We’re grateful for Helen’s years of service and wish her well.”
The sudden move comes amidst a massive reorganization of Xbox that has seen massive layoffs and studio divestitures as Microsoft seeks to rebuild the platform while also improving its bottom line. As chief operating officer, Chiang would have had a central role in helping to restructure and better optimize the tech giant’s gaming business ahead of the next console generation, Project Helix, which is reportedly set to arrive in 2028. Though the Xbox veteran set out to clear the air amid much of the recent speculation about her departure from the company, it’s still not clear what exactly happened.
“For the first time, we are establishing a Chief Operating Officer with end-to-end P&L responsibility across content, hardware, platform, and services,” Xbox CEO Asha Sharma wrote back in July. “Helen Chiang has been promoted to this role and will report directly to me. Over nearly two decades at XBOX, Helen has helped build some of our most important businesses, from XBOX Live to leading Mojang and the Minecraft franchise. She will bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results.”
Sharma later told The Wall Street Journal “clarity is kindness” when describing the touch choices she was making to set the stage for an ambitious future. “Clarity is Kindness” is also how Chiang began her LinkedIn post today. “This is not how I ever imagined my story here would end,” she wrote. “And it is not the whole story.”
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