Xbox’s First Chief Operating Officer Helen Chiang Leaves Microsoft After Just Three Months

Helen Chiang, Xbox’s first-ever chief operating officer (COO), is leaving Microsoft just three months after taking the job.

According to The Verge, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma confirmed Chiang’s departure in an internal memo circulated on 23rd October.

“Helen Chiang is leaving Microsoft today. I’m grateful for her years of service and wish her well,” Sharma wrote.

Sharma provided no details on why Chiang – who’d been at Microsoft for 21 years and had previously served as head of Minecraft – was leaving the company, only adding, “we’ll share more on COO leadership as plans are finalised”. It’s thought her duties will be shared between other Xbox execs.

Sharma created the role in July as part of Xbox’s massive “reset”, saying it was needed to “work toward a shared goal, make the right tradeoffs, and get things done”. It also came with 3200 layoffs and four studio departures in “most significant” Xbox restructuring in history.

Microsoft revealed that Psychonauts developer Double Fine, State of Decay studio Undead Labs, and South of Midnight developer Compulsion Giochi would go independent following negotiations, while Hellblade developer Ninja Theory is now likely to close after two acquisition deals fell through.

Arkane Lyon – the beloved immersive sim studio behind the likes of Dishonored and Deathloop – is the one still in limbo, and yesterday we learned it reportedly only has until November to find a buyer.

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Legendary Nintendo developer Shigeru Miyamoto – who led development on classic games such as Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – has argued that the rise of generative AI tools won’t necessarily replace human talent.

“Our generation lived through a period of rapid computer development – a time when tools were constantly evolving, moving from typewriters to word processors,” he said while speaking to the press, in quotes translated by VGC. Miyamoto argued that a designer’s true capabilities “finally came to the fore” as technology advanced and was capable of handling more of what might be considered “labor”, and a similar transition may take place with generative AI tech.

“While the act of creation is inherently satisfying, there’s a danger: one might find satisfaction in the labor itself and mistakenly believe that a high-quality piece of work has been created,” he added. If generative-AI software replaces more tasks involved in game production, human game devs might have “an opportunity to reflect on what’s really important.”

“Looking back at past designs, there are some that were created merely by copying and pasting. Yet, such work rarely stands the test of time; it lacks the individual’s particular design intention,” Miyamoto continued. “Because the process relies on an individual’s intent, with the computer serving as an assistant for the labor, I believe that even as technology continues to evolve, and even if AI were to eventually handle everything, there will always be a role left for us to play.”

Masahiro Sakurai was a bit less optimistic about a potentially AI-first future than his peer. The Smash Bros. director recently said gen-AI tech might lead to a surge of unoriginal and unprofitable games, though it won’t be able to replicate the creativity of humans.

Nintendo itself hasn’t outright ruled out the possibility of using gen-AI tools in the future, but former Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser assured folks that the company’s games would retain a “human touch” last year. “We still believe that what makes our games special is our developers, their artistic capabilities, their insight into how people play,” Bowser said at the time.

Nintendo, however, is somewhat at odds with several of its contemporaries when it comes to AI adoption. Square Enix CEO Takashi Kiryu previously said the company would be “aggressive in applying AI.” Sega, Capcom, Level-5, Epic Giochi and a number of other high-profile game studios have admitted to using generative AI in some form as well. Xbox even opened an entire division seemingly dedicated to experimenting with the tech.

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