Crystal Dynamics announces third round of layoffs this year, 30 workers affected

Crystal Dynamics has announced a third round of layoffs this year, affecting 30 employees “across various departments and projects.”

In a post shared on LinkedIn, the developer said it needed to “optimise the continued development of [its] flagship Tomb Raider game” and future projects “as the realities of the industry continue to evolve.”

Crystal Dynamics’ Tomb Raider game was announced in 2022, when it signed a partnership with Amazon Games to publish the title.

“Crystal deeply thanks all of those impacted for their incredible talent, hard work, and dedication, which helped shape the studio in so many ways,” the studio wrote.

“We are committed to offering our fullest resources and support during this transition.”

It added: “We appreciate the continued support of our players, our colleagues, and our partners during this transition and look forward to sharing the team’s amazing new work with the world in the future.”

In August, Crystal Dynamics announced an unspecified amount of workers were made redundant.

It cited “evolving business conditions” for the decision, which was made to ensure the “long-term health of [its] studio and core creative priorities in a continually shifting market.”

This came after the first round of layoffs this year in March, which affected 17 employees.

At the time, the developer said the reason was to “better align [its] current business and the studio’s future success.”

Crystal Dynamics was also the co-developer of the Perfect Dark reboot with The Initiative. The latter was closed and the game was cancelled as part of larger layoffs at Microsoft.

These redundancies affected several divisions at Microsoft Gaming, including King, ZeniMax, Raven Software, Turn 10, and Blizzard. Rare’s Everwild was also cancelled.

In September 2023, 10 people were laid off at Crystal Dynamics following restructuring at its parent company Embracer.