Let’s end the week with one of those “somebody’s getting fired” stories. The Game Developer’s Conference is a huge event that brings in industry professionals from all over the world to a single location. That means that said professionals are going to go out, socialize, and have a few drinks with their peers. In the year 2016, however, we generally expect a modicum of professionalism from industry-sponsored events.
Photos surfaced last night from Microsoft’s Xbox party, showing a venue populated by scantily-clad dancers in schoolgirl outfits. If you’re even moderately familiar with the industry’s current climate, you already know that this did not go over well.
Fuck you xbox & your fucking "dancing" girls who are here to talk to the boys (You're not men if you buy into that act) #GDC16
— Kamina Vincent (@spamoir) March 18, 2016
Extremely disappointed @Microsoft and @Xbox hired women wearing these outfits to perform at @gdc. PLEASE RT. pic.twitter.com/JYFTTGdzQk
— Brianna Wu ✈ SXSW (@Spacekatgal) March 18, 2016
👎🏼Microsoft sponsors a Women in Games lunch and awards, but then has scantily clad women dancers at their GDC party. NVIDIA does similar. 👎🏼
— Lauren Clinnick✨GDC (@laurclinn) March 18, 2016
ehhhhh I feel so icky about this because I was at Microsoft’s Women in Games Luncheon and now feel deceived https://t.co/bvHNBrun2v
— soha @ GDC (@sokareemie) March 18, 2016
As you can infer from the above comments, this party followed a Microsoft-sponsored event intended to promote women and their contributions to the industry. The story got bigger after being picked up by Crave.
Look, I’m not going to pretend to be offended by the existence of erotic dancers. But as the industry tries to grow up, be more inclusive, and support every single perspective that can be offered, it has to be doubly mindful of slipping into the old 90s mentality of appealing only to young men. Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft’s Xbox division, apologized for the event in statement released to the Verge and others. ”At Xbox-hosted events at GDC this past week, we represented Xbox and Microsoft in a way that was not consistent or aligned to our values. It was unequivocally wrong and will not be tolerated. I know we disappointed many people and I’m personally committed to holding ourselves to higher standards. We must ensure that diversity and inclusion are central to our everyday business and core values. We will do better in the future.”
Aaron Greenberg, head of Xbox Games Marketing, had a similar sentiment.
@ZenMobius @XboxP3 @Xbox @Microsoft @Spacekatgal @GDC Very disappointed to see this, going to follow up with team.
— Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) March 18, 2016
