Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 translator says he was 'fired from Warhorse Studios and replaced with AI'
Summary
"If you've ever played KCD2 in English, you've quite likely seen my work."
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was a big hit last year and took home PC Gamer's GOTY award, but developer Warhorse has had a strange week when it comes to AI. Game director Daniel Vávra took to X to defend DLSS 5 last Monday, and just yesterday, a thread was posted to the Kingdom Come subreddit with user ThousandDemons claiming to be a translator that worked on KCD2—though now they've been fired and "replaced with AI."
We have reached out to Warhorse for comment, and will update this story when we hear back. We do not yet have full confirmation of ThousandDemons' identity, but the timeline of his story and self-identification as "Max H" suggest he is Max Hejtmánek, one of two devs credited as "English Editor" on KCD2. Hejtmánek's LinkedIn shows him recently departing Warhorse. We have reached out to Hejtmánek to confirm his identity, but KCD subreddit moderator Tabnam commented on the thread that he's privately received verification proving ThousandDemons' identity as Hejtmánek.
"I primarily worked on KCD2 and its DLCs, including dialogues, quest logs, item names, and various other things," ThousandDemons wrote. "Simply put, if you've ever played KCD2 in English, you've quite likely seen my work.
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"[On March 27], 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."
ThousandDemons wrote that he has been vocally opposed to using AI translation tools at Warhorse, but "never to the extent that it might actually cost me my job in the future. He wrote that he feels "incredibly betrayed by the management" and while he's not asking for his job back, "you can be damn sure I won't keep quiet about my experience." A follow-up edit thanks all the commenters showing support and cautions fans against review-bombing or harassing other Warhorse staff.
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