AI use is mandatory at Microsoft studios, but order reportedly isn't working
A report has surfaced online shedding new light on layoffs at King Studio. Among the problems cited are illegal severance packages, unrealistic schedules, and an ineffective mandate to use AI.
1
In July, about 200 employees were laid off from Microsoft's King studio. There are reports claiming that these people were to be replaced by artificial intelligence, which they themselves helped to create. A new report has now appeared on Mobliegamer.biz suggesting that morale in the company is very low and there may be further layoffs.
Illegal severance payments and unrealistic plans
One of the studio employees admitted that Microsoft offered them illegal severance packages. Some people, not wanting to fight the giant, agreed to accept it, while others decided to take legal action.
We all took lawyers and they were pretty clear that the proposals weren’t legal. But I decided in the end to sign, simply because I fear getting even less and I don’t believe we can win against a corporation like Microsoft.
Employees do not understand the criteria used in selecting individuals for layoff. According to the source, it looked as if King "listed every employee, sorted by salary and then fired them top down, only skipping over people they trust." It was noted that neither many years of experience nor very good results mattered. Moreover, the "reduction of positions" was supposed to be so chaotic that within a few weeks of the layoffs, some people were rehired.
We also learned that King has "Annual Operating Plan" (AOP) for each of its games. The problem is that each of them was supposed to be practically impossible to fulfill.
Candy, Soda and the all other catalogue games were far behind their AOP. That being said, the AOP they forecasted was not realistic so the question has to be asked - were we all set up to fail?
As if that wasn't enough, the employees were afraid to express criticism about the management's actions, because it was no longer possible to submit anonymous opinions. The operation of the HR department was also harshly criticized, describing it as a "a shitshow of incompetent people protecting the status quo of incompetent leaders".
The AI matter
As I mentioned, the desire to replace some employees with AI, which they have been working with for some time, was to play a key role in the layoffs. Last year, the goal was to achieve 70-80% daily use of AI for general tasks. This year, this value was supposed to be 100%.
AI was being introduced by Microsoft as mandatory a while ago. […] The goal for this year was to get up to 100%, so that every artist, designer, developer, even managers have to use it on a daily basis.
The problem is that the order doesn't work well in practice. The implementation of artificial intelligence was difficult, not counting ChatGPT, and King's management is said to be skeptical about it.
If I were [Microsoft - editorial note], I would also ask King to make sure they have a right-sized workforce… There will definitely be more layoffs.
At this moment, neither King nor Microsoft have responded to the claims contained in the report.
- OpenAI CEO declares „code red” because of Google. Billion-dollar compensation payout is looming over the company
- „We won't use AI because we respect the actors.” James Cameron assures that we won't see artificial intelligence in Avatar
- Reddit users call for a way to hide Steam games that used AI, but its a complex issue
1
Author: Martin Bukowski
Graduate of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Gdańsk University of Technology, who decided to dedicate his life to video games. In his childhood, he would get lost in the Gothic's Valley of Mines and "grind for gold" in League of Legends. Twenty years later, games still entertain him just as much. Today, he considers the Persona series and soulslike titles from From Software as his favorite games. He avoids consoles, and a special place in his heart is reserved for PC. In his spare time, he works as a translator, is creating his first game, or spends time watching movies and series (mainly animated ones).
Latest News
- Discussion about AI label on Steam continues. “The dev is being punished for their naive honesty”
- Dispatch Episode 4 walkthrough and choices guide
- „Oh damn, they didn't lie.” War Thunder devs joke has just become a reality
- Todd Howard explains the Fallout phenomenon and has no doubt what we will play first - GTA 6 or TES6
- Dispatch Episode 3 walkthrough and choices guide