Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft’s Xbox division, has apologized to fans and the entire video game industry for Microsoft’s somewhat racy party at this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), which apparently involved scantily clad women hired to dance at the event.

While booth babes – excuse me, “promotional models” – have been banned from some of the more respectable gaming conventions, it seems that they still turn up at some of the parties hosted by major studios and publishers, and on Friday, reports of dancers in schoolgirl outfits at Microsoft’s GDC party flooded Twitter.

Extremely disappointed @Microsoft and @Xbox hired women wearing these outfits to perform at @gdc. PLEASE RT. pic.twitter.com/JYFTTGdzQk

— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) March 18, 2016

A swift backlash against Microsoft followed, and Xbox head Phil Spencer apologized for the party in an industry-wide email.

“How we show up as an organization is incredibly important to me,” Spencer said in the email. “We want to build and reflect the culture of TEAM XBOX – internally and externally – a culture that each one of us can represent with pride. An inclusive culture has a direct impact on the products and services we deliver and the perception consumers have of the Xbox brand and our company, as a whole.”

“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. That was unequivocally wrong and will not be tolerated. This matter is being handled internally, but let me be very clear – how we represent ourselves as individuals, who we hire and partner with and how we engage with others is a direct reflection of our brand and what we stand for. When we do the opposite, and create an environment that alienates or offends any group, we justly deserve the criticism.”

“It’s unfortunate that such events could take place in a week where we worked so hard to engage the many different gaming communities in the exact opposite way. I am personally committed to ensuring that diversity and inclusion is central to our everyday business and our core values as a team – inside and outside the company. We need to hold ourselves to higher standards and we will do better in the future.”

Image courtesy of Microsoft