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Last month, MobileGamer.biz reported that Microsoft’s mass layoffs across the company impacted King, the mobile division acquired with Activision Blizzard and home of Candy Crush. Developers at King were reportedly being replaced by AI tools they had to build. Now, a new report from MobileGamer.biz delves deeper into the chaos caused by the 200 developer layoffs, including toxic leadership and mandatory daily AI use.
King is experiencing significant turmoil. Layoffs are always demoralizing, but replacing human workers with AI tools they were building seems particularly egregious. The mandated AI use has certainly not improved morale. However, one source attributes this to poor leadership rather than just AI or Microsoft. They stated, “Microsoft and AI is one cause of the low morale, but the toxicity is endemic of the leadership team at King.”
Leadership decisions have been confusing and poorly aligned with reasoning given to employees. One source said, “It didn’t matter that it was people who worked there for ten or more years or who contributed to success and earned promotions. Performance didn’t matter.” According to a senior manager, none of the usual protocols for layoffs seemed to factor in.
The rationale behind cuts is questionable. Sources speculated that certain staff were recently promoted to middle-management roles specifically so they could be cut in July. Another source suggested executives “listed every employee, sorted by salary and then fired them top down, only skipping over people they trust.”
A toxic environment and management are also issues. One source claimed employees can no longer deliver anonymous feedback, which scared many people. A manager said, “Every question or piece of feedback was always connected to a name, which scared a lot of people, rightfully so.” Another source criticized HR for protecting incompetent leaders.
Mandated daily AI use is another concern. A source noted, “AI was being introduced by Microsoft as mandatory a while ago. The goal for last year was 70 or 80% daily usage on general tasks. And the goal for this year was to get up to 100%, so that every artist, designer, developer, even managers have to use it daily.”
Sources predict more layoffs beyond the 200 from last month. The situation at King and across Microsoft, with constant mass layoffs in the gaming industry, will have long-lasting impacts on the industry.
The current state is unfortunate and tragic, underscoring the severity of the issue.
