
The company's Xbox division has come under fire after it hosted a party with scantily clad dancers dressed as schoolgirls.
Microsoft has recently issued an apology for an after party at a bay-area conference that crossed more than one line. According to a report from the Verge, the company allegedly hired a team of scantily clad dancers dressed as schoolgirls to perform at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
Tweets from attendees indicated that people weren’t happy about the company’s apparent lack of respect for women. Kamina Vincent, one of the party’s attendees tweeted, “I like dancing, I like talking to devs. But not at this #GDC16 party. Thanks for pushing me out of this party, Microsoft.”
The party was hosted by Microsoft’s Xbox arm, and highlights an ever-present problem in the tech industry. Videos and photos of the scantily clad dancers spread like wildfire across social media, prompting an apology from the chief of the Xbox division, Phil Spencer.
“It has come to my attention that at Xbox-hosted events at GDC this past week, we represented Xbox and Microsoft in a way that was absolutely not consistent or aligned to our values,” he said. “That was unequivocally wrong and will not be tolerated.”
Despite the company’s involvement in the party, Microsoft has been vocal in recent months about the homogeneity of the tech industry and what measures can be taken to include more women and minorities. The company even hosted a “Women in Gaming” luncheon at the same conference earlier that day.
The photos and videos from the party may have set the company back quite a bit, however. Phil Spencer said that he would handle the issue internally.
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