Crystal Dynamics

Crystal Dynamics, Inc. is an American video game developer based in San Mateo, California. The studio is best known for its games in the Gex, Legacy of Kain, and Tomb Raider series.
Madeline Canepa, Judy Lange, and Dave Morse founded Crystal Dynamics in July 1992 as a spin-off of The 3DO Company and soon hired Strauss Zelnick as its president and chief executive officer (CEO). The studio initially developed games for The 3DO Company's 3DO Interactive Multiplayer system. Its first, Crash 'n Burn, was packed in with the system in October 1993. Lange left in 1994, following a failed attempt at establishing the studio as a third-party publisher, and Zelnick was hired away in 1995. Between 1995 and 1996, Crystal Dynamics created Gex and published Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, which it later expanded into franchises. As the company faced financial struggles, it raised capital through Technology Partners, with its general partner Ted Ardell instituting layoffs of a third of the studio's staff, including Canepa. As the issues persisted through 1997, Crystal Dynamics was acquired by the British publisher Eidos Interactive in November 1998.
Under its new owner, the studio created projects like Project: Snowblind, initially to be a part of the Deus Ex series, and it was put in charge of the Tomb Raider series in 2003 to replace Core Design. Crystal Dynamics developed a modernized trilogy of Tomb Raider games—consisting of Tomb Raider: Legend (2006), Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007), and Tomb Raider: Underworld (2008)—and immediately began work on a reboot trilogy. During this time, Eidos was acquired by Square Enix and renamed Square Enix Limited. After the first two games in the new trilogy, Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015), Crystal Dynamics developed Marvel's Avengers while handing the third Tomb Raider game, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, to the sister studio Eidos-Montréal.
Crystal Dynamics established the satellite studio Crystal Northwest in Bellevue, Washington, in August 2018, followed by Crystal Southwest in Austin, Texas, in May 2021. In August 2022, Square Enix sold Crystal Dynamics and several related assets to Embracer Group, where they became part of CDE Entertainment. As of April 2022, Crystal Dynamics is developing another Tomb Raider game and is assisting The Initiative in the development of Perfect Dark.
History
Background and early years (1989–1994)
Crystal Dynamics was founded by Madeline Canepa, Judy Lange, and Dave Morse. Canepa and Lange had been marketing executives for Sega, where Canepa had been integral in the launch of Sonic the Hedgehog, giving her the nickname "Mother of Sonic". Morse had previously co-founded Amiga Corporation and New Technology Group. The latter was established in 1989 to create a video game console that could succeed those by Nintendo and Sega. In September 1990, it signed an agreement with Electronic Arts that saw New Technology Group develop the system under Electronic Arts' provision of software and funding. The development of what became the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer began in 1991, and out of the partnership between the two companies grew The 3DO Company. On July 8, 1992, Canepa, Lange, and Morse spun off the game development portion of The 3DO Company as Crystal Dynamics. Lange became the company's president and Morse its chairman. Its first offices were located in the retail space of Palo Alto Airport in Palo Alto, California. The studio's first projects were Crash 'n Burn and Total Eclipse, which entered production simultaneously and were announced as launch titles for the upcoming 3DO in April 1993. Developing for the system meant that it could produce games for CD-ROM, avoiding the higher costs of cartridges.
In June 1993, Crystal Dynamics hired Strauss Zelnick as its president and chief executive officer (CEO), who resigned from the same positions at 20th Century Fox. According to Lange, Zelnick had been hired for his business expertise, whereas the creative expertise was already present at the studio, which had twenty-eight developers at that time. Zelnick acquired between 25% and 50% of Crystal Dynamics and brought in further investors through earlier connections: Home Box Office bought 10% in July 1993, followed by King World Productions acquiring 10% for in September of that year. The combined value of the latter two stakes was estimated at . Zelnick's background in film and television increased Crystal Dynamics' focus on full-motion video in its games. Crash 'n Burn was released as the 3DO's pack-in game in October 1993. An editorial in Electronic Gaming Monthly from the same month declared the studio "the hottest new video game company on the upscale scene".
In January 1994, Zelnick drafted plans for Star Interactive, which was to publish third-party games by outsourcing the management and distribution to Crystal Dynamics and the manufacturing to a third company. In return for the former, Crystal Dynamics was to receive annual payments of and 10% of Star Interactive's profit for the management role, plus 22.5% of its gross receipts for the distribution. Star Interactive's management was to consist of The Software Toolworks' former senior vice president (VP) Mark Beaumont as CEO, in addition to Crystal Dynamics' VP of sales Allen Chaplin, and Lange, then the company's executive VP. In February, Zelnick announced his intent for Crystal Dynamics to, like a movie studio, produce its own games while also releasing titles from independent developers. It hired Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III of Toys for Bob, initially as contractors and later as employees, to release The Horde, which they had pitched to Canepa and Lange during their time at Sega. Another potential publishing project had been Naughty Dog's Way of the Warrior, which the developer showed to multiple companies during the 1994 Consumer Electronics Show. In March 1994, Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), which Zelnick had been consulting, agreed to handle marketing and distribution for Crystal Dynamics and Star Interactive outside of North America. However, as Star Interactive failed to raise the targeted , the plan for this company was scrapped in early 1994 and Lange soon departed Crystal Dynamics.
In August 1994, Crystal Dynamics had more than 100 employees. Under Zelnick, the studio became the first licensed third-party developer for the PlayStation as it sought to diversify its business away from the struggling 3DO. However, the 3DO's poor commercial performance had a significant impact on the company. John Eastburn, the studio's chief operating officer, estimated that 3DO game developers could not break even unless its consumer base expanded from 75,000 to 500,000. The studio partnered with Matsushita Electric, the manufacturer of the 3DO, in December 1994 to have its 3DO games distributed through 10,000 consumer electronics stores. In January 1995, Zelnick left Crystal Dynamics to manage BMG's North American operations, remaining a director and shareholder in Crystal Dynamics. After this move was announced in September 1994, the vacant CEO position attracted several parties interested in acquiring the studio. Although The 3DO Company and Spectrum HoloByte were frequently rumored as potential buyers, Morse stated that Crystal Dynamics was not for sale, having spare savings of and a newly acquired loan of from Silicon Valley Bank. He subsequently took up the CEO role until the company hired Randy Komisar from LucasArts as president and CEO in May 1995. Under Komisar, Crystal Dynamics began converting its older 3DO games to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn.
Gex, Legacy of Kain, and acquisition by Eidos (1995–2000)
Looking to come up with a mascot character for itself, as several video game companies had at the time, the studio sought after an animal that was generally liked and had interesting abilities. The result was Gex, an anthropomorphic gecko introduced with the game of the same name in 1995. Around this time, Crystal Dynamics published Slam 'N Jam '95 and Blazing Dragons, while also was working with Canada-based Silicon Knights on Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. The latter project began to lose focus as it grew in scope, so the publisher engaged Amy Hennig to make the game more engaging.
By 1996, due largely to the unexpectedly slow growth of the CD-ROM games market, the studio was financially stricken. In June, the company revealed plans for a reorganization: The board of directors appointed Ted Ardell, the general partner of the investment firm Technology Partners, as CEO. Komisar, Canepa, and Eastburn were ousted and a third of the company's 102 employees laid off over three months. Crystal Dynamics subsequently ceased publishing efforts to focus solely on internally developed games. Surplus computer hardware and office equipment were auctioned off in September of that year. Ardell managed the day-to-day operations, and the studio lacked a president until Rob Dyer was promoted to this position in April 1997.
Following the release of the second Gex game, Gex: Enter the Gecko, Crystal Dynamics began producing Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko. By this point, many developers—including most of the Gex team and Enter the Geckos lead designer, Daniel Arey—had left the company, with some of them joining Naughty Dog. Bruce Straley, a designer on Enter the Gecko, was offered the director role for the third game, but he chose to join his friends at Naughty Dog instead. Crystal Dynamics further began the development of a second Legacy of Kain game, codenamed Shifter, without Silicon Knights' involvement. While original characters were created by Hennig and Seth Carus, Silicon Knights filed an injunction, accusing Crystal Dynamics of plagiarizing the characters from Blood Omen. In a private settlement, the two companies agreed that Crystal Dynamics could use Blood Omens characters as long as Silicon Knights was credited as their creator. Shifter ultimately became Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Toys for Bob, as part of Crystal Dynamics, developed Pandemonium! and The Unholy War, while consulting on Pandemonium 2.
Following losses of in its 1997 fiscal year, Crystal Dynamics agreed to be bought by the British publisher Eidos Interactive in September 1998 for (equivalent to ) paid in cash. The studio had returned to over 100 employees by this time. Originally set to close on October 31, the acquisition was completed on November 5, 1998. Dyer and Crystal Dynamics' VP of marketing, Scott Steinberg, subsequently acceded to Eidos Interactive as president and senior VP of marketing, respectively, in January 1999. Toys for Bob's final project under Crystal Dynamics was Disney's 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue. The team was subsequently fired during a Christmas party.
Projects under Eidos and Tomb Raider (2001–2009)
Among Crystal Dynamics' early projects under Eidos were Mad Dash Racing (2001) and Whiplash (2003). The publisher also sought for a first-person shooter with a sci-fi setting akin to Deus Ex, ultimately mandating it be part of the series. This decision was reversed six months before the game's completion, and it was released as Project: Snowblind in 2005. In the meantime, the Eidos-owned studio Core Design was completing its work on Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, its sixth game in the Tomb Raider series within seven years. Developers at Crystal Dynamics believed the game to be in a poor final state, and it became a commercial failure upon its release in 2003. Eidos consequently assigned the series to Crystal Dynamics, with several staffers excited about the possibility of working on a large franchise they had played before. Hennig, who had since been the director for most Legacy of Kain games, requested to be involved with such a project but was directed to design another Soul Reaver game instead. This led her to leave the studio and join Naughty Dog, where she created the Uncharted series.
For Tomb Raider: Legend, the developers at Crystal Dynamics played through all previous games and read guides to gain a better understanding of their design. They intended to return to the series' roots of exploring abandoned places while adding an original feel, particularly through a new control scheme. The game was released in April 2006 and proved successful, selling 2.9 million copies within its first few months. With the end of Legends production, its designers pitched Tomb Raider: Anniversary, a remake of the original Tomb Raider for its tenth anniversary. They worked with Toby Gard, one of the series' creators, to understand the intentions behind certain scenes and unrealized concepts from the original game. As the development continued, the game's scope was decreased to roughly half of the original game, which had been deemed too large to entirely remake. Using Legend as the gameplay basis forced the studio to deviate from the original game where the new design did not easily fit. The game was completed within nine months.
The last game in Crystal Dynamics' original Tomb Raider trilogy, with a focus on modernizing its legacy, was Tomb Raider: Underworld. Around the time of Underworlds development, one team within the studio sought to establish a new intellectual property. They pitched Downfall, a post-apocalyptic, open-world game set in San Francisco. However, working on two large projects at the same time was considered too ambitious, leading to Downfalls cancelation in favor of Tomb Raider. Crystal Dynamics subsequently laid off roughly 30 people in January 2009, with Eidos stating that the studio would increasingly focus on Tomb Raider going forward. Another 25 staffers were dismissed in June. In the same year, Darrell Gallagher became the head of studio, and Eidos Interactive was acquired by Square Enix and integrated into its Western operations, becoming Square Enix Limited.
Tomb Raider reboot series and acquisition by Embracer Group (2009–present)
For the next Tomb Raider game, Crystal Dynamics intended to reboot the series with new concepts to reach new audiences. For several years, the development team experimented with several gameplay concepts but felt that many of them deviated too strongly from the series' core concepts and shifted to focusing only on elements that felt like a good fit for the series. The final design was characterized as a modernized take on the series, with a focus on survival and storytelling. The creative directors devised it as the beginning of a new origin story that was then planned out over three games. To sustain the franchise in the meantime, Crystal Dynamics developed Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, which featured the same protagonist with different gameplay. The first game in the reboot trilogy, titled Tomb Raider, was released in 2013. The studio followed up Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light with Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris in 2014 and Tomb Raider with Rise of the Tomb Raider in 2015. In December of that year, Square Enix announced that Gallagher had left the studio and had been replaced with Scot Amos and Ron Rosenberg. Brian Horton, the senior art director for Tomb Raider and director of Rise of the Tomb Raider, left in 2016.
In January 2017, Square Enix announced a partnership with Marvel Entertainment to create multiple video games based on Marvel characters, with Crystal Dynamics developing Marvel's Avengers. The studio had pitched a single-player game akin to Tomb Raider that would see the player take control of the Avengers group of superheroes, switching between characters as the story progressed. However, the development team soon felt unhappy that, despite employing several player characters, only one of them was playable at a time and the impression that the Avengers were a team was not well represented. This led them to refocus it into a multiplayer game. With Crystal Dynamics working on Marvel's Avengers, the third game in the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, was handed to the sister studio Eidos-Montréal, with a small team at Crystal Dynamics working on minor parts of the game. In August 2018, Crystal Dynamics opened the satellite studio Crystal Northwest in Bellevue, Washington, to support the development of Marvel's Avengers. The late stages of the development saw the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent shift to work from home, which the studio had not been used to. Because the developers mostly worked alone during this time, the game launched with several issues they had been unaware of and needed later addressing. Afterward, Crystal Dynamics implemented hybrid work and remote hiring.
In May 2021, Crystal Dynamics opened Crystal Southwest in Austin, Texas, under the leadership of Dallas Dickinson, who had been an executive producer for the company. Crystal Dynamics partnered with The Initiative, a studio founded by Gallagher, in September 2021 to work on Perfect Dark, a reboot of the series of the same name. The studio further announced another Tomb Raider game in April 2022. In May 2022, Embracer Group announced that it would acquire Crystal Dynamics, alongside several other assets of Square Enix Limited, for . Embracer Group expressed interest in sequels, remakes, and remasters in the studio's established franchises, including Tomb Raider and Legacy of Kain. The acquisition was completed on August 26, 2022, and Crystal Dynamics became a part of the new CDE Entertainment operating group. In September 2023, at a time when Embracer Group was implementing cost reduction measures, the studio laid off nine marketing personnel and one IT worker.
Games developed
Games published
References
External links
1992 establishments in California
1998 mergers and acquisitions
2022 mergers and acquisitions
American companies established in 1992
American subsidiaries of foreign companies
Eidos
Embracer Group
Square Enix
Video game companies established in 1992
Video game companies of the United States
Video game development companies