King, a game developer like Candy Crush, plans to dismiss about 200 employees, approximately 10% of its workforce, as reported by Mobilegamer and confirmed by internal sources.
Cuts mainly affect intermediate managers, UX teams, narrative writers, level designers, user researchers and about half of the Farm Heroes Saga team in London (approximately 50 people).
Many of the dismissed employees, such as level designers and screenwriters, have spent years developing and training AI tools that are now being used to replace them. Some senior leaders were placed on paid license until September, when the cuts must be finalized.
“Most of the phase design has been discarded, which is crazy, as they spent months creating tools to build faster stages,” said one of the employees. “Now these AI tools are basically replacing teams. In the same way, the advertising writing team is completely fired people, as we now have AI tools that these own individuals have helped create.”
“The fact that AI tools are replacing people is absolutely revolting, but everything revolves around efficiency and profits, even with the company going very well,” they continued. “If we are creating more feedback cycles, then it is insane to remove the developers themselves, we need more people working and less leadership.”
A recent internal survey indicated that employees’ morale was already low before the cuts and is now “deep in the well.” Sources described King’s HR department as a “horrors show”, focused on protecting the company instead of employees.
Candy Crush teams face “constant, but low friction” and frequent restructuring, contributing to instability. King is in negotiations with unions, and many employees are in “limbo” during the summer, awaiting definitions of their jobs.
The Mobilegamer portal contacted Microsoft for more information, but got no response.
Source: https://www.gamevicio.com/noticias/2025/07/microsoft-ia/
