Microsoft's 200 laid-off King devs are reportedly being replaced by AI they helped build, while its 'absolute 's***show' HR department looks away and whistles

Phil Spencer, chief executive officer of gaming at Microsoft Corp., arrives to court in San Francisco, California, US, on Wednesday, June 28, 2023. Microsoft and Activision Blizzard CEOs are expected to testify to persuade a federal judge in California to reject the Federal Trade Commission's effort to block their $69 billion deal. Photographer: Philip Pacheco/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

If you needed further evidence we live in a dystopia an editor would chuck out for being too on-the-nose, try this: per sources spoken to by MobileGamer.biz, laid-off staff at social-game dev King (as in Activision Blizzard King) are being replaced by AI. The AI they helped build, in fact.

If you can cast your mind back to two weeks ago, Microsoft began its most recent bout of bloodletting—which eventually sacrificed 9,000 jobs at the altar of corporate "agility"—with around 200 layoffs at King, which it got its hands on after spending slightly more than the nominal GDP of Myanmar to acquire Activision Blizzard and all to which it was suzerain.