Fired Candy Crush Devs To Be Replaced With AI
As time goes by, these mass layoffs are being contextualized by new information, and it's not pretty. The games of King, developers of Candy Crush Saga and other simple mobile apps with tons of opportunities for microtransactions, might not be terribly popular among "core gamers," but they are money-making machines. Candy Crush Saga launched in 2012 and grossed over twenty billion dollars as of 2023.
But it's still not enough. It's never enough. According to reports from MobileGamer and Kotaku, roughly 200 King employees are being laid off, including the entire level design team. Worse yet, this particular team is set to be replaced by AI tools they themselves created and trained. According to the reports, morale at the company is at an all-time low.
Theoretically, AI can be a useful tool for developers to streamline their jobs and allocate more resources towards creativity and less on the granular grind of game development. In practice, however, high-paid executives see AI as a way to cut the jobs of the hard-working people who actually make games and cut out concepts like 'creativity' entirely. By outsourcing development to soulless robots, they can consolidate the profits for themselves.
Core gaming enthusiasts who play on console or PC might not care about the assembly-line automation of Candy Crush, but they should. Because if They/The Man/The Suits/The Executive Class can do it with mobile games, turning art into soulless 'product' and vapid 'content,' it's only a matter of time before they do the same thing to games you actually care about.
We're already seeing the rise of AI replacing voice actors, and 'tech bros' are practically foaming at the mouth over an AI facsimile of Quake, even if it runs poorly and sucks to actually play. The technology isn't quite there yet... But once it is, you can be damned sure that 'Big AI' will attempt to ruin AAA gaming in ways we can't even imagine, and the shareholders are going to love it.
Copyright The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Fargo North Dakota: A New AI Hub
MCLAUGHLIN, ND - JULY 9, 2018: North Dakota welcome sign along the highway at the state border We tend to think of American tech as being isolated in places like Irvine, Palo Alto and around the San Fernando Valley, out in sunny California, but in actuality, there's a lot happening further east, on the prairie. Take Fargo, North Dakota, where entrepreneurs are building some of the most interesting new AI use cases and applications, with less fanfare than, say, what Apple and Microsoft did in the oughts. Actually, it seems that Microsoft is involved in the tech ecosystem of the Midwestern region, but there's also a groundswell of local businesses innovating, nonprofits and trade groups participating, and local government chipping in. A Togetherness Mindset One thing you notice about enterprise in this part of America is that it's all about collaboration. People might not use that term, collaboration, that much, because it sounds sort of stilted. It's too formal a way to express what comes naturally to so many around Fargo and its environs. Peter Chamberlain, an MIT grad and the founder and CEO of Walkwise, a Fargo-based business, explained this to me as he detailed the involvement of individual businesses, orgs like Grand Farm and Emerging Prairie, and public investment by North Dakota's program's LIFT, APUC, and the Bank of North Dakota, as well as government initiatives. 'The brutal winters (here) create a culture of community where neighbors have to help each other,' he said, citing some of these ways that people support each other: snow plowing, jumping cars, pushing cars out of snow banks, giving people rides, or lending equipment. 'This trickles into entrepreneurship where all these founders kind of 'have each other's back.'' Deciphering Risk for Seniors Peter Chamberlain, CEO of Walkwise holding his certificate of one of his patents (left) and his ... More wheel product (right) in his startup office in Fargo ND There's more about Chamberlain's business in local media, as in this piece by Fargo Inc. magazine. Essentially, the company is demystifying predictions around medical events for seniors. Chamberlain described how the system works formally: 'Non-intrusive data on high-risk seniors must be collected continuously and compared to the model, essentially 'prompting' the model to determine if the current, real-time behavior has a high likelihood of leading to an adverse health event,' he said. He gave two examples: 'Are you concerned if someone doesn't move for 4 hours during the day?' he asked. 'Perhaps not, unless they are diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and the AI model indicates that those with CHF have a 60% chance of ending up in the hospital if they have more than two 4-hour inactivity periods in a day.' And this example of statistical analysis: 'Are you concerned if someone's activity levels drop by 40% over a two-day period? Probably not! But what if the AI knew that there was also an outbreak of respiratory viruses in the area, the patient was recently diagnosed with COPD, and that Tuesday and Wednesday were typically higher-than-average mobility days of the week? Now you can start making data-driven healthcare decisions using AI.' Fargo also has a large Sanford Health presence, the largest rural healthcare provider in the United States, giving Chamberlain access to a wider range of testing populations. These stories of community-driven innovation are starting to ripple beyond state lines. Events like Chipp Con and Grand Farm's Elevate: An AI in Agriculture Summit have drawn startups, investors, and thought leaders from across the country to Fargo, turning the city into an unlikely gathering point for AI conversations. Startup accelerator gener8tor is now engaged in the community as well. The Greater Community This is just one of many examples of how new companies are emerging in the new era of AI utilization. Modern commentary on the takeoff of AI on the American prairie points out that it's not just about lower tax rates on real estate parcels, or better recruitment – that there's a deliberate building of AI infrastructure here in some areas that have been ignored by industry for too long. That community mindset is also reflected in the way North Dakota invests in its future. The state has built a robust foundation for innovation through legislative programs and investment funds that support entrepreneurs from idea to scale. State Representative Mike Nathe, who sponsored North Dakota's LIFT and In-State Investment programs, emphasizes the importance of initiatives like these in driving innovation across the state. 'We've worked hard to create an environment where entrepreneurs have the tools they need to build and grow,' said Nathe. 'Programs like the LIFT Fund and the North Dakota Growth Fund are helping startups tackle ambitious ideas while strengthening our economic future.' One such effort is the North Dakota Growth Fund (NDGF), created in 2021 by the State Investment Board (SIB) to advance innovation and private-markets investment by seeking investments that provide strong risk-adjusted returns and support North Dakota's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem. The $100 million multi-stage investment fund, managed by 50 South Capital, targets venture capital, private credit, private equity, growth equity, infrastructure, and real assets - all with a focus on opportunities connected to North Dakota. Meanwhile, the ND Legacy Fund, a state sovereign wealth fund set up with oil and gas money, has also begun playing a role in supporting AI infrastructure - and the governor's office has this to say: 'With our all-of-the-above energy approach and nation-leading efforts in carbon capture, utilization and storage, we are well-positioned to support data centers and other energy-intensive industries with environmental stewardship while attracting high-paying jobs and diversifying our economy,' Gov. Doug Burgum said in a press release around the setup of a data center in ND. To many, these are the types of partnerships we will need to really supercharge the economy in our respective states as the AI era continues. 2025 has been quite a year, and we have all fall and winter to see additional changes. Will we build positive outcomes with AI? Some in the Midwestern heartland are ebullient.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Microsoft in advanced talks for continued access to OpenAI tech, Bloomberg News reports
(Reuters) -Microsoft (MSFT) is in advanced talks for a deal that would give the Windows maker continued access to critical OpenAI technology in the future, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the negotiations. The companies have discussed new terms that would allow Microsoft to use OpenAI's latest models and technology even if the ChatGPT maker declares it has achieved artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI that surpasses human intelligence, the report said. A clause in OpenAI's current contract with Microsoft will shut the software giant out of some rights to the startup's advanced technology when it achieves AGI. Negotiators have been meeting regularly, and an agreement could come together in a matter of weeks, Bloomberg News reported. Microsoft and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. OpenAI needs Microsoft's approval to complete its transition into a public-benefit corporation. The two have been in negotiations for months to revise the terms of their investment, including the future equity stake Microsoft will hold in OpenAI. Last month, The Information reported that Microsoft and OpenAI were at odds over the AGI clause. OpenAI is also facing a lawsuit from Elon Musk, who co-founded the company with Sam Altman in 2015 but left before it surged in popularity, accusing OpenAI of straying from its founding mission — to develop AI for the good of humanity, not corporate profit. Microsoft is set to report June quarter earnings on Wednesday, with its relationship with OpenAI in the spotlight, as the startup turns to rivals Google (GOOG), Oracle (ORCL) and CoreWeave (CRWV) for cloud capacity.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
AI Cuts Software Switch Costs In Half
AI is tearing down the biggest hurdle in enterprise software swaps, and that's bad news for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR), Salesforce (NYSE:CRM), ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) and SAP (NYSE:SAP). What used to be a months?long slog of license fees, data migrations, integrations and training can now be cut in half with AI helpers. Take a Minnesota company that used ChatGPT to whip up code moving data from Dynamics to a new sales platform in hours instead of weeks. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 10 Warning Signs with STLA. IT execs say AI automates mapping, testing and consolidation, slashing both time and cost roughly 50%. That means firms feel freer to chase best?of?breed point solutions rather than stick with incumbents. For legacy vendors, churn risk is rising and renewal talks are getting tougher. That said, it will critical to keep tabs on vendor renewal rates, churn-related metrics and any bundling AI?powered lock?in moves you might see in the hotly-anticipated earnings season. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
