Microsoft’s E3 press conference took a dark turn on Monday when a male video game producer was defeating a female employee during a demonstration of a fighting game and told her to “let it happen, it’ll be over soon.”

A producer for the Killer Instinct sequel for Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox One console was brought out on the stage and matched with a female less-experienced Xbox live community manager.

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“Whoever thought it was a good idea that I play against a producer is going to get it,” the Xbox manager complained as the fight began.

“Come on, you got to practice before you get on stage before millions of people,” the producer taunted.

“I can’t even block!” the frustrated manager said, obviously overwhelmed by the on-screen beat down. “You’re too fast!”

“Just let it happen, it’ll be over soon,” the producer advised, drawing groans and laughter from the audience.

“You have a fight stick!” the manager exclaimed.

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“Wow, you like this,” the producer remarked as his continued the thrashing.

“No, I don’t like this!” the manager insisted.

Video game designer Jonathan Blow observed that the banter was “awkward” at best.

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“‘Let’s bring a woman on stage and joke about how she’s bad at games, and say stuff like ‘relax, just let it happen, it’ll be over soon’??” Blow tweeted.

“It sure sounded like a rape joke. I doubt they planned in advance to have a rape joke in the show, but that is how it came across,” he added. “Note the (nervous?) audience laughter after that line.”

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Watch this video from Microsoft’s E3, broadcast June 10, 2013.