According to two sources for Kotaku, Microsoft laid off members of their Xbox support staff and are looking to replace them with more volunteers. These employees who were let go were all employed by Affirma Consulting, but worked out of Microsoft’s offices. These employees also provided direct support inquiries from @XboxSupport.
One source said they worked with Xbox Ambassadors who are rewarded with prizes for helping the company. Some of these former employees had even been asked to help train some of these ambassadors and tasked with increasing input from these ambassadors.
When asked to comment by Kotaku, a spokesperson for Microsoft replied:
“We continue to have a number of highly-trained customer support agents, plus community ambassadors, available to help customers with their needs.”
The company did respond to specific information related to the layoffs. Affirma Consulting have also yet to reply.