It appears as though Microsoft took to the 2016 Game Developers Conference with partying on their mind. Microsoft's GDC party, attended by a number of industry veterans and Microsoft employees, featured scantily clad 'geek' or 'nerd' girls.
Basically, Microsoft hired girls to dress up sexy and dance at the party and yes, it was entirely Microsoft's decision to feature the dancers. Obviously, the female dancers brought to light a touchy subject in the video game industry.
Mar 17, 2016 at 11:53pm PDT
The choice to feature scantily clad dancers at the party did not go unnoticed by attendees, some of whome took to Twitter to reveal their displeasure."This is the first fucking time I've felt this unwelcome at a games event," one attendee said on Twitter.
Since the event, Microsoft has responded to the event. The head of Xbox Games Marketing Aaron Greenberg said that "very disappointed to see this" and Xbox head Phil Spencer released a full statment.
The full comment from Phil Spencer, courtesy of The Verge:
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.
Personally, I have no beef with the dancers. I just want to know why Microsoft didn't consider how well Magic Mike did and hire scantily clad dudes too.
