A Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 translator, Max H, has claimed that Warhorse Studios fired them out of nowhere with the intent of using AI for all translations moving forward.
As we’ve all learned from countless controversies and studio cutbacks over the past year or so, AI is sadly becoming commonplace for a lot of big gaming studios. From Crimson Desert to Call of Duty, we’ve seen plenty of triple-A games blatantly use AI, and it looks like it’s not slowing down anytime soon.
Beyond the massive impacts that AI usage has on the environment, one of the highest costs of AI is how it regularly replaces talented and hard-working developers, all in the name of saving money on ballooning budgets. That’s exactly what has just happened to a translator who worked on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 for nearly four years.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Translator Fired By Warhorse And Being Replaced By AI
“You Can Be Damn Sure I Won’t Keep Quiet About My Experience”
Over on the Kingdom Come: Deliverance subreddit, a lengthy post was shared by Max H, a Czech to English translator and editor who worked on KCD2 and its expansions for nearly four years. Max H, who has been verified by the subreddit, worked on dialogue, quest log, item names, marketing, and a ton more – as they say, “If you’ve ever played KCD2 in English, you’ve quite likely seen my work”.
Despite making some massive contributions to a huge game like KCD2 and potentially having started work on a new project at the studio, Max H was let go from Warhorse Studios yesterday in an effort to “make the company more effective” and “save finances”. Warhorse seemingly plans on using AI for “all translations going forward”.
Max H says that this came as a huge shock as, despite discussions about AI translation coming up “frequently” in the past, it had never seemed like an imminent proposition. Max feels “incredibly betrayed” by Warhorse Studios after almost four years of being at the company, and warns the studio that, although he won’t break his NDA, he also won’t be keeping quiet about his experience.
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. – Max H
Considering how massively successful Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was for Warhorse Studios and how praised its writing, which Max H would have had a big role in as an English translator, was, it’s a massive shame to see it already chasing down AI. Then again, infamous director Daniel Vavra did recently say that DLSS 5 can’t be stopped by “haters”, so it’s not really a surprise.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
- Released
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February 4, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity
- Developer(s)
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Warhorse Studios
DLSS 5 Can Finally Fix The Problems Games Didn’t Have
Like most AI ideas, DLSS 5 is not needed or wanted, yet is happening anyway.
