Xbox COO Helen Chiang leaves Microsoft three months after taking the job

Helen Chiang, the first chief operating officer in Xbox's history, has left Microsoft barely three months after she was appointed. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma informed staff of the exit in a brief internal memo on Friday, October 23, which was first reported by The Verge.

“Helen Chiang is leaving Microsoft today,” Sharma wrote, adding that she was grateful for Chiang's years of service and wished her well. The memo did not name a successor. Chiang's immediate responsibilities will be divided among other Xbox leaders, and Sharma said the company would share more on COO leadership once its plans are finalized.

Microsoft has declined to explain the circumstances of the departure. “We don't discuss individual personnel matters,” Xbox vice president of communications Kari Perez told The Verge while thanking Chiang for her service.

Sharma created the COO position in July as part of what she called a reset of the Xbox business. In a July 6 email to employees, she announced about 3,200 job cuts across Microsoft's 2027 fiscal year, with 1,600 roles eliminated immediately and a further 1,600 to go before the fiscal year closes on June 30, 2027. She told staff the business was not healthy and was operating at margins three to ten times lower than comparable platforms and publishers. The Xbox reductions formed part of a wider round of 4,800 layoffs across Microsoft.

The same restructuring put four first-party studios up for sale. Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions returned to independent ownership under their founders, while Ninja Theory and Undead Labs went to buyers Microsoft did not name. Microsoft said the next Senua and State of Decay games would continue development and launch as planned.

Chiang's appointment sat at the center of that overhaul. Sharma gave her end-to-end profit and loss responsibility across content, hardware, platform, and services, with a direct reporting line to the CEO. The internal memo announcing the change said the organization had become fragmented as it grew, with teams and studios operating too independently to pursue shared goals. Sharma said at the time that Chiang would unite Xbox's businesses under one operating model and drive clearer investment decisions.

Chiang spent 21 years at Microsoft. Sharma credited her with helping to build Xbox Live, and she went on to lead Mojang Studios, where she became studio head in 2018 and corporate vice president of the Minecraft franchise in 2020. Under her leadership, Mojang released Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends and expanded Minecraft to more devices. She later became chief operating officer of Game Content and Studios, overseeing strategy, business planning, and operations for Microsoft's owned studios, and handed the Mojang studio head role to Åsa Bredin.

Her exit extends a long run of senior changes at Xbox in 2026. Phil Spencer retired as head of Microsoft Gaming in February after 38 years at the company, and Xbox president Sarah Bond left at the same time. Sharma, previously president of Microsoft's CoreAI group, took over from Spencer. In July, she announced that Dave McCarthy, corporate vice president of Xbox product services, would retire after 17 years with Xbox.