Warhorse Studios, the developer behind the award-winning Kingdom Come series, recently hosted a deep-dive AMA on Reddit. The event landed mere weeks after the company found itself in hot water after firing a translator and replacing them with an AI solution.
The Q&A event drew intense criticism from the community, with many questions surfacing about this situation and what Warhorse is doing to rectify it. While their comments were kept confidential for HR reasons, they repeatedly stressed that they’re in the midst of hiring actual humans to do the same job.
Warhorse Addresses AI Firing Scandal
In March, a former Warhorse Studios employee claimed they were dismissed from the company and replaced with AI. The individual, Max, explained that they were working on translations for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, before their role was ‘abruptly terminated.’
The former employee wrote on social media:
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.
In the recent Reddit AMA, this topic became a point of contention for many of those firing questions at Warhorse. Most of the questions concerning the dismissal were met with boilerplate, HR-cleared comments:
This touches on internal HR matters, so I can’t comment on any present or past employee. That would be deeply unprofessional.
But those answering the questions, which included some of the higher-ranking team members at Warhorse Studios, mentioned numerous times that they’re hiring human translators:
What I can say is that we are currently in the process of hiring new English translators. Actual humans.
And in another comment:
Definitely. We are currently in the process of hiring new translators. Yes, actual humans. Plural.
If you are a native English speaker with a deep knowledge of Czech language and culture, send me a message.
When one user joked that they would use AI to write their questions, the team insisted it’s better to craft their own because it feels more genuine and more human.
The team tripled down (or quadrupled down) when talking about the studio’s next game:
We plan to have at least the same number of human translators on the next project as we had on KCD2. We are currently hiring English translators. Actual humans.
In February, Kingdom Come’s writer and director, Daniel Vávra, sent the community into a downward spiral when he said that AI is ‘here and it’s not going anywhere.’ His role has since changed at the company, and he’s trying to push the series into alternate media.
Do you think the Warhorse AI situation is that big an issue? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Warhorse has addressed what’s coming next for Kingdom Come
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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