The reason why many gamers continue to push back on the use of AI in game development is that the tools are blamed for the mass layoffs in the industry. The recent revelation from an ex-Warhorse employee further reinforces that sentiment.
The former employee (known as Max H) made the revelation on Reddit (under the username ThousandDemons), stressing the termination came without warning. The news was shared under the Kingdom Come subreddit.
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“My name is Max H, and I’ve been working at Warhorse Studios since July 2022 as a Czech>English translator and editor,” began the lengthy post. “I primarily worked on KCD2 and its DLCs, including dialogues, quest logs, item names, and various other things, as well as some occasional marketing materials here and there. Simply put, if you’ve ever played KCD2 in English, you’ve quite likely seen my work.”
“Yesterday, March 27th 2026, with no forewarning, I was invited to a meeting and promptly told that, in an effort to “make the company more effective” and “save finances”, as of next month, my position at the company would become “obsolete” in favour of using AI for all translations going forward.
This came as a huge shock to me, as though the discussion about using AI for translating had frequently come up in the past, something I was always strongly and vocally against, but never to the extent that it might actually cost me my job in the future. It had, of course, crossed my mind many times, but I naively thought my work at WHS was valued enough that I might not be at immediate risk.”
I feel incredibly betrayed by the management of the company I’ve come to care about greatly these past almost 4 years, and am heartbroken I won’t get to see my friends and colleagues at the office every day.
I want you to know that the growing use of AI greatly affects people in the games industry and many others, and I thought you should know how much the company that makes the games you love value the work of their employees, not to mention the environment.”
The ex-Warhorse employee has edited the post twice with a plea
The post on Reddit has received more than twenty-one thousand upvotes and nearly three thousand comments at the time of writing. However, what is even more interesting is that it has been updated twice.
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In the first edit, the ex-Warhorse employee said many doubted the authenticity of the story, while thanking everyone who has shown support. Max wished he could share more, but was restricted by an NDA.
“To those who doubt the truthfulness of this post, all I can say is I understand it’s hard to believe everything you read online, but everything I said here is true. I’ve verified my LinkedIn with one of the mods here, and would post my notice of termination here, but I’m not sure if it’s legal to do so without breaking my NDA, so I’ll err on the side of caution.
While I can’t legally confirm or deny whether or not Warhorse is working on anything at the moment, I will say that while much slower than usual, I did in fact have work to do, and was laid off near the end of a normal work day during which I was completely oblivious to what was coming. I’m going to go out and touch some grass for a while, but will check back in later and answer some questions. Thanks for reading everyone and all the best.”
In a second edit, the ex-Warhorse employee pleaded with readers not to “harass anyone from WHS or review bomb their games on Steam,” saying “that isn’t my intention at all”.
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“All I want is for people to be more informed about what’s going on it the games industry behind closed doors.”
While the identity of the ex-Warhorse employee who posted on Reddit is yet to be verified, the studio’s recent endorsement of NVIDIA’s DLSS 5 technology further indicates its readiness to pivot to AI.
Are stories like this the reason why you are against the use of AI in game development, or are you more concerned about the quality of the output? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
