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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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
