New Report on King Layoffs Aftermath Points to Further Cuts

A new report published by Mobilegamer.biz sheds light on the state of King after the layoffs that happened last month. The report mentioned that morale in the studio is low and that future layoffs are to be expected.

Mobilegamer.biz’s sources have all provided negative feedback regarding the layoffs and the leadership of the studio. They mentioned that the layoffs were haphazard, which resulted in some of the laid-off employees being rehired immediately.

In addition to this, the sources also mentioned that the HR is protecting the toxic leaders and has targeted employees who were vocal about them on several occasions. Another source said that “Candy Crush and King in general is a very very toxic environment.”

Other employees have also questioned the layoffs, saying that they’ve lawyered up, and it was revealed that the proposals to them were not legal. However, they still signed in the end, as they “don’t believe we can win against a corporation like Microsoft.”

The report also revealed that Microsoft has made it mandatory for King employees to implement AI into their workflow. A source said that the goal for last year was having 70%-80% daily usage of AI on general tasks, but this year, it was raised to 100%, which means that every artist, designer, developer and even manager has to use it.

Despite this, the leadership of King is actually skeptical about AI. The sources revealed that the “adoption is very low apart from ChatGPT.”

Finally, the report also recalled an interview with a manager saying, “If I were [Microsoft] I would also ask King to make sure they have a right-sized workforce…there will definitely be more layoffs,” as they believed that the studio is still “bloated.”