Xbox: The creator of Kinect and Hololens pushed towards the exit… for a reason that you cannot imagine!

business news Xbox: The creator of Kinect and Hololens pushed towards the exit… for a reason that you cannot imagine!

Microsoft announces the departure of a key personality from its gaming and mixed reality division. Alex Kipman, known in particular for being the father of Kinect and Hololens, leaves the American giant. But contrary to what one might think, it’s not because of Kinect failure that he is leaving…

Alex Kipman pushed out for his harassment of women…

Alex Kipman is leaving Microsoft of his own free will. Anyway, this is the official version. Unofficially, it seems that the man was pushed out by management. A long-time Microsoft executive, the man is leaving the American giant after 21 years with the company. Several reasons are given by Business Insider: first, it seems that Kipman regularly engaged in inappropriate behavior with employeesincluding physical contact without consent. For example, he would have rubbed the shoulders of a colleague. Even if she tried to stop him, he would have continued. A Microsoft executive explains that she was “deeply uncomfortable”. In addition to these harassment cases, a rather bizarre story was reported by Insider…

…and for the incident of the video played in his VR headset

Indeed, according to the sounds of the corridor, a incident involving Kipman would have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. One night in 2015, Kipman reportedly put a prototype VR headset, to test it. When choosing the video, he surprised and shocked co-workers by releasing ‘openly sexualized pillow fight’ video, seen by everyone in the room via a monitor. Clearly described as “VR porn” by the media that relayed this case, the incident was also described as “uncomfortable” by an employee testifying to what he had seen at that time.

Microsoft does not mention its behavior

Business Insider had reported these cases on the occasion of a report in May on Microsoft’s “golden boys”, a group of executives who contribute to a toxic culture within the American giant. In the case of Kipman, it seems that more than twenty-five employees collected testimonies in a document intended for Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft. In this document, they compiled numerous negative interactions with Kipman. Worse, some Microsoft managers were giving instructions to their peers not to leave a woman alone with Kipman. In the internal email announcing Kipman’s departure (a single sentence at the end of an email about a restructuring of Microsoft’s mixed reality business), no mention of these toxic behaviors. The message only says:

We mutually decided it was the right time for him to leave the company to pursue other opportunities.

Source : Business Insider

If Kinect has clearly been abandoned by MicrosoftHololens still seems to be the focus, mostly for business, but not really for Xbox gaming.