Candy Crush Developer King Reportedly Committing to “Many More AI Tools” as Layoffs Hit

The march of AI appears to be unstoppable in every industry, and gaming is proving to be no exception. A new report detailing further impacts of the layoffs within Microsoft’s gaming teams has provided details about layoffs at King, the developer of Candy Crush. Citing anonymous sources, the report claims that staff members feel they are being “effectively replaced” by AI tools that they have trained themselves.

This report also details how some staff members are being “targeted” for speaking up about their dissatisfaction, and that employee morale is “in the gutter” after a recent internal survey. An internal memo published in the report appears to reveal the developer’s intention to double down on using AI and other methods to “rebalance” the company’s headcount.

“…As we’ve talked about before, we are making several changes to get the business back to growth,” the memo reported on by mobilegamer.biz said. “Unlocking many more AI tools is one recent example. Investing more in marketing this year is another.”

The memo emphasized the importance of simplifying operations, saying leadership has been tasked with “redesigning their organizations to be smaller overall.”

A previous report by Bloomberg, published on July 2nd, found that King would be cutting 10% of its total staff, estimated to be close to 200 jobs. Reporting by Mobilegamer.biz confirmed this number, attributing around 50 lost jobs to a London-based team that works on another of the developer’s popular titles, Farm Heroes Saga.

The majority of the cuts are reportedly affecting middle management, UX, and narrative copywriting at King. However, staff members from level design and user research are also reportedly being made redundant due to the introduction of new AI tools.

“Most of level design has been wiped, which is crazy since they’ve spent months building tools to craft levels quicker,” one staffer said to Mobilegaming.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.”

One source told Mobilegaming.biz that programmers are being removed for “arbitrary reasons” that they believe are connected to expressing “dissatisfaction with the company or processes.”

Back in May, King appointed 12-year company veteran Todd Green as the new president, succeeding former president Tjodolf Sommestad, who had held the role for three years. Green assumed the position in June, saying he was looking forward to “tremendous potential here with our incredible teams.”

“I’m spending my first few weeks getting out to all of our offices and chatting to as many Kingsters as possible, as we start writing this next chapter together,” wrote Green in a LinkedIn post.

These additional layoff details about King add more uncertainty about future job prospects in an industry already concerned about where things will settle with AI.

In 2023, Microsoft acquired King’s parent company, Activision Blizzard, placing the developer-publisher under the Microsoft Gaming umbrella. Earlier this month, Microsoft held an AI roundtable for developers to address feedback around “AI tools and processes” in the wake of layoffs that impacted 9,000 employees. 

The job cuts came as the company was increasing investments in AI. Last week, Microsoft seemed unfazed by pushback against its AI investments when it announced a $4 billion AI training initiative. 

With companies like Microsoft and King willing to invest in developing AI tools rather than retaining staff members, it seems likely that other gaming developers and publishers will struggle to resist moving in a similar direction in the future.