One of the Xbox founders almost lost her job at the company for refusing to wear a bathrobe at GDC

Laura Fryer recalled an incident that happened to her in 2004.

Laura Fryer, one of the members of the team that was at the origin of Xbox, shared memories in a new YouTube video about working with Phil Spencer, who recently left Microsoft. In the video, she also spoke for the first time in detail about an unpleasant incident, after which she was effectively forced to leave her position.

The incident she described occurred during the Game Developers Conference 2004. At that time, Fryer and her team presented XNA, a Microsoft framework for developing games for Xbox and Windows PC. The platform offered a set of tools and libraries based on .NET, simplifying work with the "hardware" and allowing developers to focus on game logic rather than low-level code.

According to Fryer, after a successful presentation, she, along with a PR specialist and one of the Xbox executives, went to a hotel room to get gamepads.

A week later, upon returning to the office, Fryer was informed of a "reorganization" that resulted in her losing her position.

Later, she shared what happened with a colleague who contacted the human resources department. However, despite the fact that another person present in the room confirmed her version, it did not help.

According to her, it was Phil Spencer who helped her continue her career at the company. He offered to move to the publishing team and work with Bonnie Ross, effectively insisting on her transfer.