Helen Chiang had been at Microsoft since 2005. She spent over a decade overseeing Minecraft, the company’s most important gaming franchise, and survived this year’s big Xbox “reset” with a promotion to the role of the gaming division’s chief operating officer. Barely three months later, she’s suddenly out at the company she called home for more than two decades, a development which generated tons of speculation about whether she was fired or not. Chiang now says she’s breaking her silence to set the record straight.

“There has been some speculation about my abrupt departure from Microsoft, including claims that I was ‘fired for a policy violation,'” she wrote on LinkedIn, referencing a report last month from Eurogamer alleging she was fired for a “policy violation.” “That’s not accurate and while I won’t turn this into a play-by-play, silence should not be mistaken for agreement. What has been said about my departure, and what has been left unsaid, has created a picture of me that I hardly recognize. It’s important to me to set the record straight.”

Chiang went on to say that she never leaked confidential company information to the press or went outside of company-authorized communication channels. ” Chiang added that her past results and record speak for themselves, and that she did not leave the company because she’d been passed over for a bigger role. The chief operating officer role had not been something she’d lobbied for.

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