Latest news with #Gamescom2025
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Report: Laid-Off Staff At Candy Crush Maker Say They've Been Training Their AI Replacements
Candy Crush maker, King, which Microsoft acquired along with Activision Blizzard back in 2023, was the first hit when mass layoffs were announced across the company earlier this month. Now some impacted staff say morale is at an all time low, as AI they've been training for years is potentially used to replace them. 'Most of level design has been wiped, which is crazy since they've spent months building tools to craft levels quicker,' a member of King's Farm Heroes Saga team reportedly told 'Now those AI tools are basically replacing the teams. Similarly the copywriting team is completely removing people since we now have AI tools that those individuals have been creating.' 200 were laid off across King, though many impacted staff are reportedly in limbo until union negotiations wrap up in September. According to improving morale at King was a top priority following poor internal survey results and ongoing attrition. Instead, one employee said 'it's now in the gutter' ever since the layoffs were announced. King has not been secretive of its use of AI tools to make games like Candy Crush, which players' spent an estimated $9 million on every week, even harder to stop playing. 'Before we release a level, we let the bots play that level and we get insights–are there any shuffles? How difficult was this level? And there are many more metrics that give designers an insight into the gameplay–we run them thousands of times so we have good accuracy,' King's director of AI Labs Sahar Asadi told at GDC in 2024. 'Then the designers decide if that is an intended experience that they wanted – yes or no–and they go back and refine the level,' she continued. 'We also have built a tool on top of this playtesting that does automatic tweaking by AI.' AI's been a reoccurring backdrop to Microsoft's decision to fire roughly 9,000 employees, including many across Xbox and its related gaming divisions. Developers were invited to an AI roundtable at Gamescom 2025 on the same day the layoffs were announced. A senior Xbox publishing producer encouraged impacted staff to us AI to redo their resumes and apply to new jobs. And over the weekend, one of Xbox's principle development leads put out a hiring post that used apparent AI slop for its image of someone coding at a computer. The cuts across Microsoft comes as it commits to invest $80 billion in AI technology, more than the total cost of all its recent gaming acquisitions, in the current fiscal year alone. 'The fact AI tools are replacing people is absolutely disgusting but it's all about efficiency and profits even though the company is doing great overall,' one King staffer told . 'If we're introducing more feedback loops then it's crazy to remove the developers themselves, we need more hands and less leadership.' . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Metro
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
You can play Switch 2 at Gamescom 2025 as Nintendo confirms attendance
After skipping last year's event, Nintendo has confirmed it will be attending Gamescom 2025, just two months after the Switch 2's launch. Now that E3 is no more, Gamescom is the world's biggest gaming event, based on its size and visitor numbers, but one company was notably absent last year. Nintendo skipped last year's event, held annually in Cologne, Germany, and while no explicit reason was given at the time, it was presumably so the company could prepare for the Switch 2's launch. Nintendo has now confirmed it will return for Gamescom 2025, which takes place from August 20 until August 24. The news was announced on Nintendo's German account on X. 'Mark your calendar in red,' the post reads. 'Nintendo will be back at Gamescom in 2025. We look forward to welcoming you to Cologne from August 20th to 24th!' There are no details on what Nintendo will show, but it will likely focus on the Switch 2 line-up beyond its initial launch on June 5, 2025. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza will both be released by the time Gamescom 2025 rolls around, so it might be the place to showcase Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokémon Legends Z-A, which are both slated for later this year, albeit without exact release dates. More Trending Drag x Drive, aka the wheelchair basketball game, is also set to launch at some point in the summer, while Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Imprisonment and Kirby Air Riders both have vague 2025 release dates, so it's possible they could be playable too. Neither Microsoft or Sony have announced whether they're attending Gamescom 2025, but the latter has skipped for the last several years. With Marathon and Ghost of Yōtei on the horizon though, it's possible Sony could make an appearance. As usual, Gamescom 2025 will be preceded by Opening Night Live, hosted by Geoff Keighley, which serves as a starting presentation for the event with game announcements. Before Gamescom, Keighley is set to host Summer Game Fest on Friday June 6, which will be followed by an Xbox showcase on Sunday, June 8. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Take-Two boss has zero interest in playing GTA 6: 'I'm not a gamer' MORE: Stalker Legends Of The Zone Trilogy Enhanced Edition review – Chornobyl horrors MORE: People shouldn't complain about £80 games says ex-PlayStation boss
