Candy Crush creators lose jobs to AI tools they helped develop: Report
Dozens of employees at King, the Microsoft-owned gaming company known for the Candy Crush series, are reportedly being laid off as the studio replaces human roles with AI systems that were developed in-house.
A report by MobileGamer.biz reveals that around 50 employees, from the team working on Farm Heroes Saga, are being affected by the downsizing.
Departments such as level design, narrative copywriting, user research and UX are among the hardest hit. Many of those impacted were based in King’s offices across London, Stockholm, Berlin and Barcelona.
According to insiders, the company had spent months building AI tools to speed up content creation, particularly level design and writing. Ironically, these tools are now replacing the teams who contributed to their development. One employee stated that nearly the entire level design team had been let go, despite having created the very systems that now make their roles redundant.
In some cases, team leads and managers have reportedly been placed on "gardening leave," meaning they will continue to be paid and receive benefits while being asked to stay away from work, as a measure to protect confidential information or delay a move to competing companies.
The restructuring may extend beyond the initially reported numbers. Centralized teams in research and QA are also being affected, with the total layoffs potentially crossing 200 employees. Employees cited in the report said leadership appears focused on reducing internal layers and speeding up production by relying more heavily on automation and fewer decision-makers.
Earlier King had issued a statement about using AI to handle repetitive tasks with the intention of freeing up employees for more creative work. The layoffs now suggest a shift toward automation.
King, once part of Activision Blizzard, came under Microsoft's ownership in 2023 as part of a $69 billion acquisition.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
