Concerns that Microsoft’s layoffs at Xbox would lead to developers being replaced by AI seem to have been proven true, starting with mobile developer King.
Science fiction has been warning about the dangers of AI for decades and while emotionless robots taking over the world isn’t currently a problem, soulless company executives replacing all their staff with incompetent AI tools definitely is.
Of course, that’s not quite how they put it, especially Microsoft, which is obsessed by the technology and insists that it can help gaming as much as anything else. After the most recent round of layoffs, many suspected they were intending to replace the thousands of vacated positions with AI tools and that’s now been confirmed at Candy Crush Saga developer King.
Despite being highly profitable, King was one of the first studios to report layoffs, earlier in the month, and now former staff have described how the AI tools they helped train have now replaced them.
Around 200 staff are believed to have been cut at King, which has offices in Stockholm and London, with many developers currently in ‘limbo’, as the company negotiates with union representatives.
An internal survey reportedly describes morale as being ‘in the gutter’, with website Mobilegamer.biz implying that dissenting voices are specifically being targeted by HR.
Reportedly, the majority of cuts are in middle management, UX (user experience), and narrative copywriting. At the same time, Farm Heroes Saga, which is made in the UK, has lost half its staff, including level designers and user research – which adds up to around 50 people on its own.
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Many other staff have also been told their jobs are at risk, most of which have spent the last few years training AI tools to do their jobs. This has apparently worked well enough that they are now being replaced by those same tools.
‘Most of level design has been wiped, which is crazy since they’ve spent months building tools to craft levels quicker,’ one former employee is quoted as saying. ‘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 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,’ they added.
Microsoft took control of King in 2023, when they acquired Activision Blizzard, and previous to that claimed that King and mobile gaming was the primary reason for the purchase, more so than Call Of Duty.
There’s since been no sign that’s true, much as Microsoft’s claims of wanting to support the Nintendo Switch have so far led to only two games (Pentiment and Grounded) in 2024 and nothing being announced for the Switch 2.
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