After 25 complaints and VR porn in the office: The “golden boy” from Xbox Kinect and HoloLens is leaving Microsoft

Alex Kipman, the technology expert at Microsoft who invented the Xbox Kinect and the HoloLens mixed reality glasses, among other things, is leaving the company. He was considered an “untouchable golden boy” at the group. Officially, Kipman is leaving Microsoft of his own accord and because of a “restructuring”, although serious allegations have been made against him.

Who is the developer? Alex Kipman, the Brazilian tech expert at Microsoft, is leaving the company after 21 years. With Xbox Kinect and the HoloLens, Kipman has made a name for himself, especially in the field of augmented reality.

His departure became known after geekwire an internal e-mail was leaked. In this email, the head of the department for cloud and AI at Microsoft, Scott Guthrie, speaks of “restructuring measures”, as a result of which Kipman will vacate his post.

What are the reasons for leaving? In the leaked email, Guthrie thanks Kipman for his “vision”, his achievements at Microsoft, and for his contribution to Microsoft’s Metaverse project. But now is “the right time” for Kipman to face new challenges away from Microsoft.

According to the email, this voluntary termination by Kipman happened after an exchange in the last few months. The HoloLens developer is said to stay with Microsoft for another 2 months.

What the email doesn’t reveal, however, is that serious allegations have been made against Kipman. in one Business Insider article of May 25, Kipman was branded an “untouchable” employee and “golden boy” at Microsoft for allowing him to keep his job despite numerous complaints and many alleged misdemeanors.

Report: Women should not be left alone near Kipman

What were those complaints? Kipman has been accused of frequent sexual assault.

Working with Kipman is said to have gotten so bad that more than 25 employees put together a report detailing all of his abuse and inappropriate behavior. This document went to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

According to three sources, managers even warned others about leaving women alone with Kipman. Among other things, he is said to have massaged a woman’s shoulder without being asked. When she tried to stop him, Kipman continued anyway, which she considered “very awkward.”

The word “uncomfortable” was also used by a source for an incident involving VR pornography. One evening in 2015, while the company’s mixed reality team was experimenting with a prototype, Kipman reportedly donned a VR headset to try it out.

He is said to have watched a virtual reality porn that showed an “obviously sexist pillow fight”. All staff in the room were also able to involuntarily view this video through a monitor in the room, the report said.

Microsoft does not comment on the allegations

What does Microsoft say about these allegations? Microsoft has not commented on these allegations since the first report on Kipman’s behavior, either in internal e-mails or in response to inquiries from journalists.

Microsoft is also silent now that the planned farewell to Kipman has become public. Opposite to kotaku a Microsoft spokesman said only that there have been organizational changes in the mixed reality team and that Kipman will leave the company to “pursue other interests” after agreeing to a two-month transition period.

Again and again a sexism scandal overshadows the industry. In addition to Activision Blizzard, which will soon also be part of Microsoft, there was also a lawsuit against Sony:

PlayStation boss criticizes Activision Blizzard – Now Sony is making its own sexism lawsuit