{"id":67769,"date":"2026-07-11T04:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T20:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=67769"},"modified":"2026-07-11T04:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T20:15:11","slug":"microsoft-refutes-notion-that-foreign-worker-visas-were-behind-mass-xbox-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=67769","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Refutes Notion That Foreign-Worker Visas Were Behind Mass Xbox Layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/xbox-logo-new.webp?w=300\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since news broke of Microsoft&#8217;s recent round of mass layoffs&#8211;which affected 1,600 people immediately and will reach double that number over the next year&#8211;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 &#8220;bad information.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a Twitter post, Shaw said that while there are Microsoft workers using H-1B visas, they are &#8220;not specific to Xbox and represent a small percentage of Microsoft&#8217;s overall workforce. And the majority of the roles impacted were not American roles.&#8221; <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Lots of bad information out there &#8211;let&#39;s clear it up.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 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.<br \/>\u2022 The H-1B figures being referenced are Microsoft-wide visa\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/fxshaw\/status\/2075637298046374135?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 10, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;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,&#8221; Shaw said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shaw&#8217;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.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The recent Xbox layoffs are among the biggest we&#8217;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&#8211;Double Fine and Compulsion Games&#8211;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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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. <\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/microsoft-refutes-notion-that-foreign-worker-visas-were-behind-mass-xbox-layoffs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since news broke of Microsoft&#8217;s recent round of mass layoffs&#8211;which affected 1,600 people immediately and will reach double that number over the next year&#8211;a number&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[26329,897,291,3576,26328,17028,19792,162],"class_list":["post-67769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-foreignworker","tag-layoffs","tag-mass","tag-microsoft","tag-notion","tag-refutes","tag-visas","tag-xbox","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}