Microsoft's Xbox video game business head Phil Spencer has expressed his apologies following a party organized by the company in San Francisco last Thursday night for computer game developers, which featured female go-go dancers in short skirts and crop tops.
Soon after the party, which was organized on the very day the Redmond-headquartered tech giant sponsored "women in games" lunch; several attendees took to social media to complain about the party. Responding to such widespread criticism, Spencer described the event as "unequivocally wrong."
Incidentally, the unpleasant event took place about a week after the South by Southwest seminar in Austin, Texas, wherein speakers talked at length on online harassment in the industry, the Wall Street Journal reported. Microsoft's image apparently took a beating as word and photographs featuring scantily dressed women from the party spread on social media. In fact, it had an adverse effect on the company's endeavors to be further inclusive of women.
The tech giant was quick to realize the mistake and issued an apology in a blog post last Friday, wherein it said the party "did not reflect the core values and beliefs of Xbox." Aside from apologizing for the party, Microsoft also circulated an email Spencer sent to staffers. In his email, Spence was critical of the events at the party.
In his email to staffers, Spencer wrote, "We represented Xbox and Microsoft in a way that was absolutely not consistent or aligned to our values." He went on to add, "That was unequivocally wrong and will not be tolerated. We must ensure that diversity and inclusion are central to our everyday business and core values."
Meanwhile, Kamina Vincent of Melbourne, Australia, had come to attend the party with a view to network with other game developers, but she reportedly had a very unpleasant experience, BBC reported. According to Vincent, an editor at the Tin Man Games studio, there were several women in plaid miniskirts and revealing crop tops on the podium. When she asked the women why they were there, the latter told the Australian that they were hired to join with attendees and cheer them to dance.
Nevertheless, not all attendees thought that the organizers had made a mistake by hiring the go-go dancers. Though Microsoft has stated that hiring the dancers did not gel with the company's values, one attendee Gerris Digital tweeted, "Go-go dancers are not strippers."
Watch the video showing scantily clad "schoolgirl" dancers at Microsoft's Xbox developers' party below: