[STEAM] Microsoft comms lead says Xbox layoffs "were not made to replace employees with foreign workers" in response to "bad information"

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communications lead Frank Shaw says the 1,600 Xbox employees recently cut at the start of a layoff wave which

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by the end of the fiscal year were not laid off to be replaced with H-1B visa foreign workers.

Seemingly heading off reports that falsely conflated plans for

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to hire H-1B visa employees with the Xbox layoffs, Shaw says in a striking

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, "Lots of bad information out there --let's clear it up."

Echoing Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, Shaw reiterates, "Recent workforce changes were made to restructure the XBOX business because it is not healthy." He is quick to stress that, "They were not made to replace employees with foreign workers."

Shaw says "the H-1B figures being referenced are

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-wide visa renewals and new hire applications. They are not specific to XBOX and represent a small percentage of

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's overall workforce. And the majority of roles impacted were not American roles."

These initial Xbox layoffs hit multiple teams and studios around the world, with four studios already shed and Dishonored maker Arkane Lyon in talks over divestment options, and the

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and

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of their own.

The H-1B visa program has faced additional scrutiny under the Trump administration, with

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2025 plans to overhaul the program. Matthew Tragesser, US Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman, said in December that the program had been "exploited and abused by U.S. employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers."

Shaw insists, "XBOX is the largest employer of American workers in the gaming industry and the largest American gaming company."

Dismissing apparent criticism of Sharma, who was

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the very week she oversaw the dissolution of 3,200 jobs, Shaw adds, "And Asha is an American born, raised, and educated CEO, from Wisconsin."

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