King's AI Tools Replace Laid-Off Developers in Controversial Move

Laid off Candy Crush studio staff reportedly replaced by the AI tools they helped build

Microsoft's extensive gaming portfolio was hit hard by sweeping earlier this month. The situation appears to have been particularly galling for staff at Candy Crush developer King who are reportedly set to be replaced by AI tools they worked on. Multiple anonymous sources have told that a number of narrative, UX, level design and user research staffers at King have spent several years helping to build and train AI models that can do their jobs more quickly. Those same employees are now being told their jobs are at risk. They added that the copywriting team is facing the same fate, with the London-based group working on Farm Heroes Saga expected to effectively be cut in half. "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," a source told the mobile gaming-focused outlet. "If we're introducing more feedback loops then it's crazy to remove the developers themselves, we need more hands and less leadership." The same source estimated that the company-wide staff cuts could end up being more than 200, which was the number reported by Bloomberg when it the news of the broader layoffs. The impact of the recent staffing upheaval is being felt across Microsoft's gaming division. Engadget's Jessica Conditt to employees at Halo Studios, with one developer telling us they were "super pissed" about the layoffs. At least five people within Halo Studios were told they no longer had jobs shortly after receiving an all-staff email from Microsoft Gaming SEO Phil Spencer allegedly celebrating Xbox's current profitability. The same developer said Microsoft was trying its "damnest to replace as many jobs as [it] can with AI agents" as it Copilot on its staff.

Candy Crush studio hit by layoffs as AI takes over design and writing work

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. What just happened? King, the company behind the iconic Candy Crush franchise, is preparing to lay off around 200 employees amid a significant internal transition. According to insiders, the move has created an atmosphere of instability and low morale. Many of the affected workers are reportedly being replaced by the very AI tools they helped develop. Sources familiar with the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal, told Mobile Gamer Biz that employees in departments such as level design and narrative writing spent years developing AI tools to accelerate their workflows, only to now see those same tools rendering their roles obsolete. "Most of level design has been wiped, which is crazy since they've spent months building tools to craft levels quicker," said one employee. "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 layoffs, first reported by Bloomberg and later confirmed by current employees, are largely affecting mid-level managers, designers, researchers, and creative staff, many of whom held highly specialized roles. "The fact AI tools are replacing people is absolutely disgusting," one employee said. "It's all about efficiency and profits even though the company is doing great overall." An internal memo sent to King staff explaining the job cuts. Roughly 200 jobs are being cut across King's offices in London, Stockholm, Berlin, and Barcelona, according to people familiar with the matter. One of the hardest-hit teams is Farm Heroes Saga in London, where sources say about half the staff - approximately 50 people - are being let go, including senior team members who have already been placed on leave ahead of their departures this fall. In internal meetings, King's leadership described the sweeping changes as necessary to eliminate "layers" and "slow-moving processes" within the company. One staffer who attended the meetings said executives pointed to over-specialization and organizational silos as key issues they now aim to solve by merging teams and reducing overall headcount. "They also mentioned the fact that we are too specialized now and siloed between crafts, which has got us to our amazing profits but now is hampering us so we need to merge and generalize," the employee said. "If a resource is centralized it is being cut or moved into the production teams," said another employee. Others say the way the message was delivered only deepened frustration. "It seemed that the main info communicated to us by leadership was literally being read like a script in the calls, which is like a slap to the face," said one staff member. Internally, a recent employee survey already showed morale was low, and workers say the layoffs have only made things worse. "The SLT [senior leadership team] said improving morale was a top priority... as you can imagine, it's now in the gutter," said a source familiar with the company's response to the survey. Insiders also raised concerns that some employees were targeted not purely for redundancy or performance issues, but for speaking out internally. One person claimed several layoff decisions appeared "arbitrary," particularly among programmers and those who had criticized internal policies or raised concerns on company forums. These tensions are not new, according to current and former employees, who say HR and management dysfunction has plagued King for years. "King HR is an absolute shitshow and has been for years," one source said. "An extreme example of an HR department whose role it is to protect the company, not the staff." As the summer unfolds, uncertainty looms for many King employees, especially in departments still awaiting news about their future. A new company-wide organizational chart is expected in September, after negotiations with unions conclude. Until then, entire teams remain in limbo, unsure whether they'll still have a job in the fall. "Despite the conditions forced upon the teams by inept leadership, the teams are very close-knit and do genuinely care about each other and are passionate about improving their games," one team member said. Microsoft, which owns King through its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, declined to comment to Mobile Gamer Biz about the restructuring. King has also not issued a public statement.

Candy Crush developer King reportedly replacing laid off staff with AI tools they helped to build

Candy Crush developer King is reportedly replacing laid off staff with AI tools they helped to build. At the start of the month, Microsoft announced around 9000 employees would be laid off. This included roughly 200 staff from King. Now, in a report from MobileGamer.biz, sources stated they've spent the last few years building and training AI tools, which will now be replacing them. "Most of level design has been wiped, which is crazy since they've spent months building tools to craft levels quicker," said one source from the company. "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." They added replacing people with AI tools was "absolutely disgusting", but the focus is "all about efficiency and profits even though the company is doing great overall". "If we're introducing more feedback loops then it's crazy to remove the developers themselves, we need more hands and less leadership," they said. Further, some programmers have been laid off for "arbitrary reasons", said the source, claiming staff may have been removed after expressing "dissatisfaction with the company or processes". Another source described King's HR department as "an absolute shitshow and has been for years", adding it's an "extreme example of an HR department whose role it is to protect the company, not the staff". Back at the Game Developer Conference in May 2023, King's chief technology officer Steve Collins described to Eurogamer the ambition for King to pivot to an "AI-first company", after it acquired Swedish AI company Peltarion in 2022. AI is a "tool" that's "in the hands of our level designers and our level testers, so they use that to augment what they're able to do in those spaces," said Collins. When asked if this might mean a shift from human workers to a reliance on AI, Collins replied: "I think we still have a large number of human beings, that's the thing! What we're trying to do is: how do we scale? How do we scale or create thousands of new levels?" Discussing further, Collins added: "The reality is, this sort of technology can be leveraged. What it does is, it can move people up the stack, it can move people to the point where they're being more creative, they have more agency to bring to the content creation pipeline or whatever." Now, it appears to have moved people out of the company. Eurogamer has contacted Microsoft for comment on this report and the claims staff will be replaced by AI. ZeniMax Online Studios was also impacted by layoffs at Microsoft. Now its union has spoken out, stating those impacted will "depart with dignity".

Microsoft's 200 laid-off King devs are reportedly being replaced by AI they helped build, while its 'absolute 's***show' HR department looks away and whistles

If you needed further evidence we live in a dystopia an editor would chuck out for being too on-the-nose, try this: per sources spoken to by MobileGamer.biz, laid-off staff at social-game dev King (as in Activision Blizzard King) are being replaced by AI. The AI they helped build, in fact. If you can cast your mind back to two weeks ago, Microsoft began its most recent bout of bloodletting -- which eventually sacrificed 9,000 jobs at the altar of corporate "agility" -- with around 200 layoffs at King, which it got its hands on after spending slightly more than the nominal GDP of Myanmar to acquire Activision Blizzard and all to which it was suzerain. That was about 10% of King's workforce, who no doubt felt a lot better about the whole thing when Xbox boss Phil Spencer told them that "we have more players, games, and gaming hours than ever before," and that Microsoft's "platform, hardware, and game roadmap have never looked stronger." Speaking anonymously, King staff told MobileGamer "Most of [the] level design [team] has been wiped, which is crazy since they've spent months building tools to craft levels quicker. Now those AI tools are basically replacing the teams." The same goes for King's narrative copyrighting team, which was reportedly also hard-hit by the layoffs. "The copywriting team is completely removing people since we now have AI tools that those individuals have been creating. "The fact AI tools are replacing people is absolutely disgusting," said the source, "but it's all about efficiency and profits even though the company is doing great overall," a sentiment backed up by Spencer's own farewell letter. Anonymous King staff called the move to axe developers "crazy," adding that "we need more hands and less leadership." The source also alleged that devs hit by layoffs are often those who have expressed "dissatisfaction with the company or processes." It sounds like staff aren't exactly keen on bringing up these kinds of issues to company HR. "King HR is an absolute shitshow and has been for years," said one staffer, calling it "An extreme example of an HR department whose role it is to protect the company, not the staff." King's senior leadership team has, apparently, made improving company morale a "top priority" in the wake of an employee survey that went out before the layoffs happened. Unsurprisingly, those layoffs didn't help, and combined with the ongoing "constant but low attrition" among staff, morale is reportedly "now in the gutter." It's all quite grimly predictable, of course -- no one would expect sky-high morale after a big round of layoffs, but it's made all the worse by Microsoft touting the fact that it's actually doing better than ever right now. It's hard not to feel like an old, uneasy balance between corporate avarice and the wellbeing of staff has been completely thrown out the window, and workers are left to cling to whatever they can while execs scarf down every drop of profit in reach with zero regard for the long-term wellbeing of the people they're responsible for. Indeed, the promise of AI seems to be that executives won't have to be responsible for anything so pesky as human beings for much longer. These are unpleasant times. I've reached out to Microsoft and Activision for comment on this story, and I'll update if I hear back.

Microsoft replaces fired workers with AI that the former employees built

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. TweakTown may also earn commissions from other affiliate partners at no extra cost to you. Microsoft recently announced that, in an effort to make the company more agile, it would be laying off as many as 9,000 jobs across its various companies working under its umbrella, and one of those companies was Activision Blizzard King. King, the developer of some of the most popular mobile games, such as Candy Crush Saga, was hit with a 200-person layoff, and now we are beginning to hear who, or rather what, has replaced those workers. Sources speaking to MobileGamer.biz said that King suffered a loss of about 10% of its workforce and according to King staff that spoke to the publication anonymously, "Most of [the] level design [team] has been wiped, which is crazy since they've spent months building tools to craft levels quicker. Now, those AI tools are basically replacing the teams." The level design team wasn't the only department to be hit with layoffs, as King's narrative copyrighting team was also hit extremely hard. The source said, "The copywriting team is completely removing people since we now have AI tools that those individuals have been creating." The source added that following the mass layoffs, morale at the company is "now in the gutter" as the source alleged that many of the staff that were let go have expressed "dissatisfaction with the company or processes" in the past. Moreover, the source claimed, "King HR 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." Following the layoffs, King management is now making company morale a "top priority," with King staff calling for "more hands and less leadership."

Report: Laid-Off Staff At Candy Crush Maker Say They've Been Training Their AI Replacements

Candy Crush maker, King, which Microsoft acquired along with Activision Blizzard back in 2023, was the first hit when mass layoffs were announced across the company earlier this month. Now some impacted staff say morale is at an all time low, as AI they've been training for years is potentially used to replace them. "Most of level design has been wiped, which is crazy since they've spent months building tools to craft levels quicker," a member of King's Farm Heroes Saga team reportedly told Mobilegamerz.biz. "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." 200 were laid off across King, though many impacted staff are reportedly in limbo until union negotiations wrap up in September. According to Mobilegamerz.biz, improving morale at King was a top priority following poor internal survey results and ongoing attrition. Instead, one employee said "it's now in the gutter" ever since the layoffs were announced. King has not been secretive of its use of AI tools to make games like Candy Crush, which players' spent an estimated $9 million on every week, even harder to stop playing. "Before we release a level, we let the bots play that level and we get insights-are there any shuffles? How difficult was this level? And there are many more metrics that give designers an insight into the gameplay-we run them thousands of times so we have good accuracy," King's director of AI Labs Sahar Asadi told Mobilegamerz.biz at GDC in 2024. "Then the designers decide if that is an intended experience that they wanted - yes or no-and they go back and refine the level," she continued. "We also have built a tool on top of this playtesting that does automatic tweaking by AI." AI's been a reoccurring backdrop to Microsoft's decision to fire roughly 9,000 employees, including many across Xbox and its related gaming divisions. Developers were invited to an AI roundtable at Gamescom 2025 on the same day the layoffs were announced. A senior Xbox publishing producer encouraged impacted staff to us AI to redo their resumes and apply to new jobs. And over the weekend, one of Xbox's principle development leads put out a hiring post that used apparent AI slop for its image of someone coding at a computer. The cuts across Microsoft comes as it commits to invest $80 billion in AI technology, more than the total cost of all its recent gaming acquisitions, in the current fiscal year alone. "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," one King staffer told Mobilegamerz.biz . "If we're introducing more feedback loops then it's crazy to remove the developers themselves, we need more hands and less leadership."

Candy Crush Developers Set To Be Laid Off By Microsoft Are Reportedly Being Replaced By The AI Tools They Were Told To Build

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.

King reportedly replacing 200 developers with AI

According to insider sources, around 200 employees - mainly from the level design team - are allegedly being affected by Microsoft's latest wave of staff reductions. A leaked internal message suggests King is doubling down on AI tools that can automate key parts of the game development process, from menu creation to environment design. This is reportedly part of Microsoft's broader strategy to cut costs, become more agile, and shift more human resources toward marketing rather than development. The AI tools are designed to speed up production timelines and eliminate what are being described as "human bottlenecks." It may make sense from a business standpoint, but not everyone is thrilled about the widening gap between human creativity and automation. So far, neither King nor Microsoft has officially confirmed the news, so take it with a grain of salt. That said, given Satya Nadella's public enthusiasm for AI, this doesn't seem all that far-fetched.

GRTV News - King is replacing laid off employees with AI

"Hello everyone and welcome back to another GRTV News. Today we're going to be talking a little bit about King, the developer who is responsible for titles like Candy Crush." "The reason why we're talking about it is because I believe this is building on the recent Microsoft layoffs. So we knew that King was affected and that a bunch of different employees were going to be losing their jobs over at that company." "But it looks like there's a little bit of an additional reason for that and it revolves around AI and the way that King is looking to further incorporate AI into its business. Now on one hand, you can sort of see the point of it. On the other hand, I think the reasoning they actually give is pretty poor, all things considered." "But anyway, let's dive on in and take a look. King reportedly replacing 200 developers with AI. Candy Crush maker King is rumoured to be undergoing a major internal shake-up. So yeah, according to insider sources at Mobile Gamer, around 200 employees, mainly from the level design team, are allegedly being affected by Microsoft's latest wave of staff reductions." "We knew this as of last week or two weeks ago, whenever the layoffs happened. It was actually one of the first studios we knew that was actually being hit, which is quite unusual. Anyway, a leaked internal message suggests King is doubling down on AI tools that can automate key parts of the game development process, from menu creation to environment design." "This is reportedly part of Microsoft's broader strategy to cut costs, becoming more agile and shift more human resources toward marketing rather than development. The AI tools are designed to speed up production timelines and eliminate what are being described as human bottlenecks." "It may make sense from a business standpoint, but not everyone is thrilled about the widening gap between human creativity and automation. So far, neither King nor Microsoft has officially confirmed the news, so take it with a grain of salt." "That said, given Satya Nadella's public enthusiasm for AI, this doesn't seem all that far-fetched. This is the statement. So why is this happening? The industry is changing fast and our business has not been growing." "When that happens, we must not only look outside at competitors and the market, but also inside. As we've talked about before, we are making several changes to get the business back to growth, unlocking many more AI tools in one recent example. Focusing more on marketing this year is another." "We're fortunate to have many talented individuals at King, but we also have a collective problem. The size and structure of the company often makes it difficult to get things done. So we plan to simplify the organisation, fewer layers, fewer overlapping remits, fewer hours spent on alignment, fewer people in meetings, fewer stakeholders for every project." "Many leaders across King have been asked to redesign their organisations to be smaller overall. There will be some new roles created in these redesigns and some rebalancing of headcount across King." "But overall, King will be a smaller company. Now, I do agree that there is probably some bloat effect in the industry, specifically actually after the pandemic, when video games boomed, and I think developers and publishers tried to capitalise on that, although it was more a consumer thing." "I do agree there's a bit of bloat in the industry and that you can probably get a lot of these projects done with a smaller team. But I do still think the reason they give that is pretty poor, because they specifically say that unlocking many more AI tools is one reason, example, OK, AI can be useful for streamline in some parts of game development, specifically, for example, like game testing." "You can have an AI run through a game and encounter all the bugs that would take human testers much longer. So that's one example. But anyway, then they go on to say investing more in marketing this year is another." "This is particularly egregious to me because mobile games are structured in a very different way to PC and console games, in that PC and console games cost a huge amount of money to actually produce, and then they kind of balance it with marketing costs, depending on the size of the game and depending on what type of game it is." "Like, for example, a Call of Duty will have marketing costs significantly higher than, for example, I don't know, well, literally any other game. These sort of like big tentpole games that people are familiar with in the sort of mainstream space will absolutely dwarf the marketing budgets of more sort of niche things, for example, like a new Dragon Quest." "But mobile games are very different because they don't cost as much money to make because obviously they're much smaller and concise games. Candy Crush being a great example because it is a match three game, as they call them, which means that it lacks a lot of the mechanical depth of, say, a 3D platformer." "But then they go and say, you know, we're investing more in marketing, and this is where mobile spends all of its money in marketing. Now, Candy Crush, I think they spend somewhat somewhere like upwards of one million euros a day or something on marketing for Candy Crush alone." "And that might sound like a lot, but it's also the same with a game like Monopoly, where I think the Monopoly game, they were talking about spending like a billion dollars a year on marketing alone. So to go and say, you know, invest in more marketing as the solution, cutting jobs, putting AI in place and then using the money that the AI would save, right, to invest more in marketing." "To me, I don't know what more you can get out of marketing when you're already spending as much as that. Only so many people are going to play Candy Crush and it's been dropping over the years because the game is the same and it's the same with all the ones they do that are similar, like Soda Crush and all those different things." "So I think it's a bit of an unusual thing to say that, you know, like AI is the solution here. Oh, by the way, we're going to spend all the money we save on marketing. I'm not too sure that more marketing is going to get more people to play Candy Crush." "Everyone everywhere knows what Candy Crush is because it's been around for a decade and it's always at the top of the app stores. So to me, it's a bit of an unusual thing here. They just said we're going to cut down on size and we're going to use the money to streamline and make better projects or something like that, expand our range of portfolio, try and get more people to play King games." "Yeah, kind of makes sense to me. But for some reason, it's like, no, no, we're going to make we're going to get Candy Crush back into the hundreds of millions of players that used to play it by marketing more. But I don't think people I don't think that's going to be the solution." "You know, I don't I can't imagine many people are opening up or many people are unfamiliar with Candy Crush now and are still trying to download it and especially by the microtransactions and stuff. It's a very unusual situation, this." "But I hope it's not the way the future goes where, you know, we cut down on on creative jobs. Again, this this is particularly by the sounds of things going to be affecting the from menu creation to environment design, which is essentially art." "And you're going to cut down on these artistic roles for AI and then use the money you're saving on marketing. It just it just shows that the way that the industry is structured is going in a direction that doesn't at all particularly feel very fulfilling." "But we'll see how this changes. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe maybe the king executives have have a much better grasp on this than I do. And maybe maybe spending more money on marketing will be the solution to to to getting Candy Crush."