After three months as Xbox chief operating officer, Helen Chiang has left the company. The Verge’s Tom Warren first reported on her departure based on an internal memo from CEO Asha Sharma.
“Helen Chiang is leaving Microsoft today. I’m grateful for her years of service and wish her well.” When she joined the newly created role, Sharma said that she would have “end-to-end responsibility across content, hardware, platform, and services,” reporting directly to Sharma.
Chiang spent 21 years at Microsoft and has been involved in numerous endeavors, including Minecraft, spending nearly six years as studio head of Mojang. Her departure has reportedly resulted in other Xbox leaders taking up any “immediate responsibilities.”
Xbox vice president of communications Kari Perez confirmed Chiang’s departure in a statement to The Verge, but declined to offer more information. “We don’t discuss individual personnel matters. We’re grateful for Helen’s years of service and wish her well.”
Of course, this isn’t the only newly appointed position that’s been vacated since Sharma took over. Jared Palmer became VP of Xbox Engineering and departed only two months later to join Cognition.
These departures are separate from Xbox’s mass layoffs, which kicked off last July. This affected 1,600 employees, with 1,600 more to follow over the fiscal year (though it’s reportedly aiming to avoid this), and studios such as Double Fine Productions, Compulsion Games, and Undead Labs split from the company.
Recent restructuring plans included 268 layoffs, including in Halo Studios, World’s Edge, and more. Developers such as Turn 10 Studios merged with Playground Games, while Obsidian Entertainment now worked under Bethesda.
