Xbox COO who left after just 3 months shoots down claims she was 'fired for a policy violation,' says her story is about 'core values'

Xbox COO who left after just 3 months shoots down claims she was 'fired for a policy violation,' says her story is about 'core values'

Helen Chiang, who became the Xbox division's first chief operating officer in July, says she has "serious concerns" about how her case was handled.

"This is not how I ever imagined my story here would end. And it is not the whole story."

Longtime Microsoft executive Helen Chiang was made Xbox's first-ever chief operating officer as part of the 'reset' in July, a role that gave her "end-to-end P&L responsibility across content, hardware, platform, and services." Then, just three months later and with virtually no fanfare, she was gone, amidst an anonymous claim that she was "terminated for policy violations."

Saying it was important "to set the record straight," Chiang has now formally denied that claim in a lengthy LinkedIn post, saying she did not:

- "Leak confidential company information to the press"

- "Leave Xbox to join a competitor"

- "Engage in discrimination, bullying, harassment, insider trading, embezzlement, or other fraudulent activity"

- "Leave because I was passed over for a bigger role"

The record-straightening did not get into why Chiang did leave Xbox, although she seemed to imply that it was not an amicable departure: "I believe in fairness, accountability, and holding ourselves to the standards we expect of others. 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."

The sudden split seemed doubly strange because prior to taking the COO job at Xbox, Chiang spent more than 20 years at Microsoft, nearly all of it with the Xbox division—rising from Xbox platform business manager in 2007 to corporate vice president of the Minecraft franchise in 2020, a position she held for more than six years. The memo announcing Chiang's departure was also notably restrained: "Helen Chiang is leaving Microsoft today," Xbox CEO Asha Sharma wrote. "I'm grateful for her years of service and wish her well."

"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," Chiang wrote in her message.

"This is not how I ever imagined my story here would end. And it is not the whole story."

I've reached out to Microsoft for comment on Chiang's message and will update if I receive a reply.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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