Microsoft's Xbox division is laying off roughly 1,600 employees as part of a broader 4,800-person cut across the company, and the official line from communications lead Frank Shaw is that these moves address an unhealthy business, not visa schemes. The H-1B numbers cited in the noise are company-wide approvals for 2,273 foreign workers this year, not targeted Xbox replacements, and layoffs have hit international teams in Canada, Germany, and France too. CEO Asha Sharma, born in Wisconsin and raised in the U.S., gets pulled into the same tired framing anyway.