The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Information / Computing 62 - Computer programming, consultancy and related activities 62.1 - Computer programming activities 62.10 - Computer programming activities
96 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
25 July 2025
Employment effect (start)
25 July 2025
Foreseen end date
Description
The Swedish video game company King has launched cooperation negotiations and announced the reduction of 200 jobs globally, representing around 10% of its workforce. In Sweden, 96 positions at the company headquarters in Stockholm are affected.
King has invested heavily in AI, developing an AI tool assisting in the level design of games. After a merger with the AI company Peltarion in 2022, the company head of AI announced that the AI tool acts as a player and can thus determine whether new levels developed in the game are proportionately increasing difficulty. The planned lay-offs are targeting the team working with level design, who have previously been developing the AI tool.
According to the representative of the trade union Unionen, approximately 80 employees have accepted voluntary buyout packages as part of the restructuring process.
King has approximately 2,000 employees globally, out of which 700 in Sweden.The company is part of the Activision Blizzard group, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2023.
Eurofound (2025), King, Internal restructuring in Sweden, factsheet number 203567, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/203567.
Digitisation and automation technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), can affect working conditions in a variety of ways and their use in the workplace raises a host of new ethical concerns.
The retail banking sector is fertile ground for studying the impacts of digitalisation on work and employment. Financial services are increasingly provided online, without the intermediary of customer-facing institutions.
European labour markets have recovered strongly from COVID-19. By the end of 2021, little more than 18 months after the start of the pandemic, employment rates in the EU were almost at pre-crisis levels.
