A new report from MobileGamer.biz claims that 200 developers at Candy Crush studio King are at the risk of being laid off as part of Microsoft’s latest mass layoff, and will be replaced by the AI tools they were told to build.
King is the mobile division of Activision Blizzard King, and arguably was the division out of Microsoft’s ABK acquisition that its gaming team needed the most, since Microsoft lacked any presence in the mobile gaming industry. Buying the studio that makes Candy Crush, one of the biggest and most well-known mobile games around the world, changed that overnight.
But as it’s been reported multiple times, Microsoft’s cuts are allegedly not concerned with anything beyond the company wanting to get ahead, and stay ahead, in the AI race. Now, this report from MobileGamer.biz shows the inevitable endgame that every bean counter pushing AI and generative AI tools has in mind, being put into practice. That every part of the job they currently pay people to do can be replaced by an AI tool.
“Most of level design has been wiped, which is crazy since they’ve spent months building tools to craft levels quicker,” said a source that MobileGamer.biz spoke to. “Now those AI tools are basically replacing the teams. Similarly the copywriting team is completely removing people since we now have AI tools that those individuals have been creating.”
The report also adds that certain employees are being targeted and getting laid off for “arbitrary reasons,” with a source claiming that people who have been vocally speaking out against decisions made by leadership are now set to lose their jobs. A different source in the report claims that the HR department at King is “an absolute shitshow and has been for years. An extreme example of an HR department whose role it is to protect the company, not the staff.”
So far, the line from any company that’s implementing generative AI tools into their game development process, King included, has always been that the AI tool will take care of the more tedious, mundane tasks, while the human developers can focus on the more complex, creativity-focused parts of making games. Reporter for The Logic, Brendan Sinclair, pointed out that just last year, King’s director of AI labs, Sahar Asadi, had that exact message as part of her talk at GDC 2024.
Now, those designers who were supposed to have more time to be creative, are being replaced entirely by these AI tools. An internal memo sent out to King developers claims that these cuts are about “making several changes to get the business back to growth” and that “unlocking many more AI tools” is one element of that. It also goes on to explain that this is about having “fewer layers, fewer overlapping remits, fewer hours spent on alignment, fewer people in meetings, fewer stakeholders for every project.”
According to a source in the report, it could be the case that more than 200 developers are cut from King, impacting the Candy Crush team, half of the Farm Heroes Saga team, and developers working in London, Barcelona, Stockholm, and Berlin-based studios.
“The fact AI tools are replacing people is absolutely disgusting but it’s all about efficiency and profits even though the company is doing great overall,” said a source that MobileGamer.biz spoke to. “If we’re introducing more feedback loops then it’s crazy to remove the developers themselves, we need more hands and less leadership.“
