While Microsoft leads a large restructuring of its video game activities, the King studio, its subsidiary behind Candy Crush, deleted around 200 positions. Some dismissed employees could be replaced by generative AI tools which they themselves had contributed to develop.
The King studio, developer of the Candy Crush Saga and subsidiary of Microsoft, lost around 200 employees as part of the group’s recent layoffs. Part of them should be replaced by generative artificial intelligence tools which they themselves had helped to design, according to the Mobilegamen media.
This decision is an extension of the deletions of posts announced in early July by Microsoft, which provided several thousand layoffs as part of a strategic reorientation towards artificial intelligence. Subsidiary of the group since 2023, the King studio has not escaped this restructuring.
According to Mobilegamer, these layoffs affect several European sites: 96 departures in Stockholm, 30 in Barcelona, fifty in London (half of which are Farm Heroes Saga, including managers), as well as posts in Berlin and teleworking.
The cuts relate in particular to average frameworks, the Narrative and Writing UX writing teams, entirely dissolved. It is mainly the Level Design pole that is targeted. “The majority of the department has been fired, which is crazy since they have just spent months building tools to design the levels faster,” reports a source to Mobilegamer.
These AI tools should now replace these functions, including in writing teams. For some employees, the company does not seem in economic difficulty, this approach is deemed “absolutely disgusting.”
Discussions with unions are still underway and the future of the positions concerned remains uncertain. A new organization chart must be presented in September, according to King’s management.
