The Microsoft executive walked into the small, windowless room in Studio C at about 8 o'clock that evening. A half dozen staffers on the company's "mixed reality" team were working late, tinkering with prototypes of virtual-reality headsets. When the boss arrived, an employee murmured, "I've got the thing working."
The executive slipped on a pair of VR goggles and hit play. As the executive gazed into the VR headset, a nearby monitor — which mirrored everything on the headset's display — flickered to life. Everyone in the room could see what the boss had chosen for his virtual-reality experience.
In the video that filled the screen, several young women in skimpy clothing frolicked on a bed; an overtly sexualized pillow fight ensued. An employee who was present, speaking with Insider later, described the scene as "VR porn." The assembled staffers exchanged confused glances, and a couple of them walked out.
"It was in the office, in front of women," the person recalled. "Incredibly uncomfortable."
Perhaps most stunning, the executive wearing the headset was not some low-level manager gone rogue. He was Alex Kipman, one of Microsoft's most powerful executives and the leader of its mixed-reality business. With his shoulder-length hair, leather jacket, and fluctuating degrees of stubble, Kipman looks as much like the frontman of a rock band as he does a tech executive.