Helen Chiang, Xbox’s first-ever chief operating officer, has left the company just a few months after being promoted to the role under CEO Asha Sharma. In that position, Chiang was tasked with overseeing the profitability of Xbox, a division that has recently been struggling financially.
Given the timing of her departure, questions have arisen about the circumstances surrounding it, and these remain unclear. Sharma confirmed Chiang’s exit in a memo to staff, seen by The Verge, in which she expressed gratitude for Chiang’s “years of service” at Xbox.
A Microsoft spokesperson told Windows Central that the company does not “discuss individual personnel matters.”
According to a source speaking to Eurogamer, Chiang was “terminated for policy violations.” The Verge’s Tom Warren corroborated this, stating that Chiang was let go due to a “policy violation,” though the exact nature of the infraction is unknown.
In July, Sharma announced that Chiang would become Xbox’s first-ever COO, with “end-to-end” responsibility for the financial future of Xbox’s content, hardware, platform, and services.
Chiang had spent 20 years at Microsoft, during which time she played a key role in the creation of Xbox Live and later guided Mojang and the lucrative Minecraft franchise. As COO, Chiang was expected to “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 said.
The Xbox business was “not healthy” when Sharma took over, she said, and Chiang no doubt faced a challenging road ahead. As for now, however, people can only speculate as to the real reason she left Xbox.
September was another difficult month for Xbox hardware sales, with sales of the Xbox Series X|S consoles in the US falling to an all-time September low. On the software side, Gears of War: E-Day appears to be a major disappointment. In terms of services, Xbox Game Pass is set to become worse and more expensive in November.
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