> Adam Orth was an exec in Microsoft's gaming division.

This is not accurate. He was a (not the) Creative Director, which is several levels down the hierarchy from anyone that would be considered an executive. Think of it as one step above Senior Designer.

I stand corrected about the audience, but that really doesn't help your point either - when you make a change, you announce the change, you don't send out an internal email asserting the "new" policy like the old one never existed. This sounds much more like a reminder or clarification than an about-face.

You'd think people working on a project would know better than to believe inaccurate press rumors about the project they are working on, but unfortunately that's not always the case in my experience. While I was working in the Office division there were certain rumors about the next version of Office which had gotten play in the press and had become incredibly widely believed among people working on the next version of Office, despite everyone having access to the real plans (and despite the rumors not making any goddamn sense, but I digress).

It's not a matter of being "privy" to the details. Just having the ability to get accurate information doesn't mean you'll bother to take advantage of that ability.