A few hours ago, renowned developer Crystal Dynamics confirmed it was forced to perform a round of layoffs. However, the new Tomb Raider game project is unaffected.
Here's the whole message that was posted on LinkedIn:
Today, we made the very difficult decision to part ways with a number of our talented colleagues as the result of evolving business conditions. This decision was not made lightly. It was necessary, however, to ensure the long-term health of our studio and core creative priorities in a continually shifting market.
To those impacted - we recognize and thank you for your hard work, talent, and passion. We are committed to offering the full extent of support and resources at our disposal during this transition. To our teams, players, and partners, thank you for your continued support as we build a creative, sustainable, and resilient tomorrow together. This includes the future of Tomb Raider, which remains unaffected by this decision.
The studio had been collaborating with The Initiative on the Perfect Dark remake that was canceled last month, so this could still be related to that decision taken by Microsoft.
Crystal Dynamics, a studio headquartered in San Mateo, California, has been in the industry for over 33 years and is known primarily for Legacy of Kain, Gex, and of course, Tomb Raider. More recently, it released Marvel's Avengers, which largely failed to gain any traction despite the IP.
In April 2022, we learned that the studio was working on a new installment in Lara Croft's franchise, powered by Unreal Engine 5 instead of Crystal Dynamics' proprietary Foundation Engine. A few months later, the studio announced that Amazon Games would publish the new title. Amazon later acquired the movie and series rights, with vague goals to create an interconnected universe that would also include the new games. We now know that Phoebe Waller-Bridge has been brought on to write and produce the series that will eventually air on Prime Video.
As for the new Tomb Raider game, we last heard something official from Amazon Games head Christoph Hartmann, who said it wouldn't be too long before the project was shown to the public. That was in June 2024, though. Hopefully, we will get at least a trailer at the upcoming The Game Awards in December.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
