Mobile game giant King, the company behind the massively popular Candy Crush Saga, has reportedly laid off significant portions of its staff as it pivots to using AI tools for game development. According to industry insiders, many of the affected employees had spent months developing and training the very AI systems that are now taking over their jobs.
The layoffs have particularly impacted the level design and copywriting teams. Sources indicate that most of the level design department was eliminated after they created AI tools intended to speed up level creation. Similarly, the copywriting team saw deep cuts as AI now generates in-game text and other written content that human writers previously crafted.
King, which was acquired by Activision Blizzard in 2016 and later became part of Microsoft in 2023, has reportedly framed these layoffs as part of business growth and future planning. However, inside sources paint a clearer picture: The company is replacing human creativity with automated systems to cut costs and increase production efficiency.
The studio’s business model relies heavily on regular content updates, with hundreds of new puzzle levels and text elements needed each month to keep players engaged. AI-generated content offers a cost-effective alternative to maintaining large teams of designers and writers.
This move follows a troubling trend across the tech and gaming industries. Major publishers are increasingly turning to AI solutions to handle tasks traditionally performed by human developers, from level design and narrative creation to quality assurance and localization.
The internal AI tools at King were specifically tailored for game development, with employees using their expertise to train these systems on the company’s distinctive style and requirements. Now operational, these tools can generate content at a fraction of the cost of human teams.
Microsoft, King’s parent company, has been investing heavily in AI across all its divisions, with gaming being no exception. The tech giant’s partnership with OpenAI and development of tools like Copilot signals a broader corporate strategy that prioritizes automation.
