Wed Jul 16 05:30:00 UTC 2025: Here’s a summary of the provided text, followed by a rewritten version as a news article:
**Summary:**
Candy Crush maker King is reportedly laying off around 200 employees across its London, Barcelona, Stockholm, and Berlin studios. The cuts primarily affect middle management, UX, narrative copywriting, level design, and user research staff, with the Farm Heroes Saga team being particularly impacted. Sources claim the layoffs are driven by the increasing use of AI tools that employees themselves helped develop, leading to concerns about morale and the company’s priorities. There are also reports of HR issues and a general decline in employee morale prior to the cuts. Some sources suggest the total number of layoffs may be higher than initially reported, and that programming staff have also been affected for alleged arbitrary reasons.. The leadership team has told staff that a new organization structure will be presented in September. Microsoft, King’s parent company, has not yet commented.
**News Article:**
**Candy Crush Maker King Cuts 200 Jobs, Reportedly Replacing Staff with AI**
**London, UK** – King, the company behind the wildly popular Candy Crush Saga, is reportedly preparing to lay off approximately 200 employees across its European studios, according to multiple anonymous sources. The cuts, first reported by Bloomberg and later confirmed by sources speaking to Mobilegamer.biz, are said to be primarily impacting middle management, UX, narrative copywriting, level design, and user research roles.
Sources within King claim that the layoffs are a direct result of the company’s increasing reliance on AI tools, many of which were developed by the very employees now facing redundancy. “Most of level design has been wiped,” one staffer stated, “which is crazy since they’ve spent months building tools to craft levels quicker. Now those AI tools are basically replacing the teams.” The Farm Heroes Saga team is expected to lose around 50 staff, with some leadership placed on gardening leave pending their departure in September.
The move has sparked outrage among employees. “The fact AI tools are replacing people is absolutely disgusting,” one source lamented, “but it’s all about efficiency and profits even though the company is doing great overall.”
Beyond the immediate job losses, sources point to deeper issues within King, including long-standing HR problems described as an “absolute shitshow,” and low employee morale stemming from constant restructuring and a perceived disconnect between leadership and staff. A recent internal survey reportedly indicated plummeting morale, which was reportedly worsened by the announcement of the job cuts. Some programmers have allegedly been removed for ‘arbitrary reasons.’
Sources suggested the total number of cuts may exceed 200, with central support functions like research and QA also being heavily affected.
The news comes as employees across King’s London, Barcelona, Stockholm, and Berlin studios find themselves in a state of uncertainty, awaiting final decisions on their employment status. Senior management have informed the remaining staff that a new organizational chart will be unveiled in September.
As of press time, Microsoft, the parent company of King, has not issued a statement regarding the reported layoffs. We will update this article as more information becomes available.
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