The slice of Microsoft stuff I worked at certainly did not have dedicated QA at the time I was there and used to have a QA team before, so there is some degree of truth to the statement. I can't speak for other Microsoft teams and offices. It was very disappointing for me, because I have had the opportunity to work with great QA staff before and in my current job and there is no way a developer dedicating 25 % of their time (which is what was suggested as a replacement for having dedicated QA) can do a job anywhere near as good.