Obviously, the female dancers brought to light a touchy subject in the video game industry.
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Unfortunately, finding good images from the event is tough, as many who shared them online have chose to pull them down.
The event was suppose to be for people from all stripes so to many, use of these exotic dancers by Microsoft was understandably offensive.
Microsoft added that it “deserves criticism” for the mistake.
Others pointed out that the stunt reinforced the notion that gaming is an industry by men, for men and was a setback to Microsoft’s diversity initiatives. However, despite all the progress that the world of gaming has made, it is still considered a rather regressive place for women.
Women now make up less than 30% of Microsoft’s workforce.
Kamina Vincent was present at the event. Twitter users were quick to express their displeasure.
They were immediately noticeable from their outfits because they seemed dressed completely differently to everyone else for the event, wearing a cleavage enhancing crop top and short miniskirt. “Thanks for pushing me out of this party, Microsoft”.
‘F*** you xbox & your fucking “dancing” girls who are here to talk to the boys (You’re not men if you buy into that act),’ she wrote.
“The publication also cited that Spencer had also sent an email to their employees that said the criticism was deserved”.
Spencer also noted that the company would be dealing with the issue on an internal level. He went on to call the incident as “unequivocally wrong” and that it will not be tolerated.
This is not even the first time scantily-clad dancers have caused controversy at GDC. Ironically, Microsoft had sponsored a “Women in Games” lunch earlier during the conference.
Microsoft might have to take some action in the current issue.
The company has already issued a statement to apology for this mistake and clearly emphasized that similar cases will no longer be “tolerated”.
What’s nice to see here is Xbox Head Phil Spencer apologizing over the whole scenario.
So often social media explodes with negativity, but being with the actual developers in one big group showed me that the people who actually work on games do care and are very supportive.
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This is unacceptable in terms of how we treat women and how we represent Microsoft, and it undermines the culture we are working so hard to cultivate – one that is diverse and inclusive and grounded in a growth mindset.
