Microsoft Refutes Notion That Foreign-Worker Visas Were Behind Mass Xbox Layoffs

Since news broke of Microsoft’s recent round of mass layoffs–which affected 1,600 people immediately and will reach double that number over the next year–a number of reports have claimed that mass approvals of foreign-worker visas were behind the decision. Now, Microsoft communications lead Frank X. Shaw has refuted what he calls “bad information.”

In a Twitter post, Shaw said that while there are Microsoft workers using H-1B visas, they are “not specific to Xbox and represent a small percentage of Microsoft’s overall workforce. And the majority of the roles impacted were not American roles.”

“Recent workforce changes were made to restructure the Xbox business because it is not healthy. They were not made to replace employees with foreign workers,” Shaw said.

Shaw’s comments come after multiple conservative news outlets pointed out that Microsoft was approved for more than 2,200 H-1B visas this year. Fox News was told by Microsoft prior to publishing its story that H-1B employees were also among those affected by the layoffs.

The recent Xbox layoffs are among the biggest we’ve ever seen in the gaming industry. Alongside losing roughly 20% of the Xbox workforce, Microsoft also made the decision to separate from five studios. Two of these–Double Fine and Compulsion Games–will return to operating as independent studios. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs, meanwhile, are being sold to a currently unknown buyer, and Microsoft is currently reviewing options with Arkane for its sale or separation.

The studios that remain operational were still heavily impacted by the layoffs, however. Among the worst-hit, at least that we know of, was id Software, which lost roughly half its headcount just as it launched the latest Doom: The Dark Ages expansion.