Today, in the gaming industry’s latest recurring episode of “wow, this sucks,” laid-off employees from Candy Crush developer King are reportedly being replaced by the AI they trained.
The report from mobilegamer’s Neil Long cites multiple anonymous sources making the claim and supplies an internal memo that was sent within King detailing the job cuts. The memo states “the industry is changing fast and [King’s] business has not been growing,” so a mass restructuring is taking place.
As part of this restructuring, which fell within Microsoft’s mass layoffs of around 9,000 workers a few weeks ago, “unlocking many more AI tools” is an example of how King is working to “get the business back to growth.”
“Most of level design has been wiped, which is crazy since they’ve spent months building tools to craft levels quicker,” one source told mobilegamer. “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.”
Of the 9,000 layoffs, one source told mobilegamer that King was subject to around 200 of them, and morale is now “in the gutter” at the studio behind the massively successful and popular mobile puzzle game.
“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 continued. “If we’re introducing more feedback loops then it’s crazy to remove the developers themselves, we need more hands and less leadership.”
The report cites sources who claim a new organizational chart will be presented in September, but “some senior staff” have been put on paid leave “for the summer ahead of their expected departure” in the fall, so it looks as though more jobs will be axed.
Employees are also reportedly being “targeted by HR” when expressing dissatisfaction internally about the changes.
Published: Jul 15, 2025 10:14 am