Tomb Raider Developer Crystal Dynamics Hit with Layoffs as Embracer Crumbling Continues

Oof, that's bad. Feel bad whenever that happens..

there won't be another tomb raider game. the IP is dead in the hands of embracer or amazon. this is the one of the biggest messes in the gaming industry at the moment. let's just forget tomb raider ever existed. it was a good run, but it is time for a spiritual successor and to move forward...

The fact that 9 of the 10 laid off were for brand marketing suggest they expect Amazon to do all the marketing for the game and maybe other publishers for future games as well. No actual developers were laid off so I don't expect any impact towards the game being made. But I can definitely see this Studio being shut down if the new Tomb Raider flops.

Its a shame Sony don't go in for them and Gearbox, surely they could get them dirt cheap.

I've send it before but Embracer have really shot up to the top of my most hated gaming corps lately. They f**ked up hard and its everyone else pays for their greed.

In my opinion, Tomb Raider has really struggled for an identity in recent years. The more recent versions of Lara simply have not captured the public imagination in the way that the original version did. And even then, part of her original success was due to the novelty of a female protagonist and (lets be honest about this) her ''pixels'' rather than her as a character. I would be genuinely interested to know how many of you would actually put her in your top 10 videogame characters of all time and why.

Whilst I feel horrible for the game devs involved I do love seeing Embracer Group eat s*** they're Sus as hell and they're gobbling up companies as fast as the scumbags at Microsoft so seeing it immediately comeback to bite their asses is pretty satisfying

@LifeGirl Whilst I agree a lot of people just see her as a good looking character to play as, there's more to her that makes her more than that, she's Adventurous, a Survivalist, Very Intelligent and is still strong although dealing with the trauma of losing both her parents yet tries so hard to carry on her dad's legacy. She's a role model to those young women who have lost their parents or gone through other trauma, shows that they can still be strong and badass with enough work and determination.

@UltimateOtaku91 God knows why they didn't buy them of Square Enix. My guess is Sony already had live service fever but that point, and weren't interested in anything that wouldn't work as a LS.

So what, Embracer bought up all these studios just to fire people and then eventually shut them down? What was the gameplan? Pure unbridled greed? Did they think they could tell devs to "make game and make money" and they'd have games in a year? Crazy...

@Fyz306903 Yeah they would of got the Tomb Raider IP as well so would of been a massive bonus for that franchise to be playstation exclusive. Plus Crystal Dynamics are a decent team who make highl visual games that I'd say suit sonys current profile of games.

@ATaco Pretty much spot on i'd wager. Embracer seems to have little interest - and certainly a lack of experience - in gaming and the lack of nurturing for once great studios like volition proves that.

Crystal is a victim of bad publisher decision-making throughout their history. Tomb Raider never really recovered from the exclusivity deal with Microsoft for Rise (despite how good i personally think Shadow was, sales didnt reflect that).

Square Enix didnt have developer wellbeing in mind when they sold to Embracer group, and since then Crystal have been batted from pillar to post with this partnership with microsoft on perfect dark, and the whole tomb raider/amazon thing.

I really do hope they fall on their feet. The soul reaver and tomb raider ip deserves better treatment.

Crystal will end up under MS in my opinion. Dont forget that they are also supporting with Perfect Dark.

Give the IP back to someone like Core (in the early days), give Lara a classic look, an advertising budget and I think you'd see a resurgence.
I suppose we'll see with the remastered versions but even that's had minimal advertising apart from a footnote in the recent Ninty and Fony shows.

The Crystal Dynamics rebooted franchise just left me feeling cold - went back to playing Anniversary on the Vita for a classic puzzle and action game. It's a bit like comparing the Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander movies - one was fun, one wasn't.

@LifeGirl yet the reboot sold incredibly well and got strong reviews. It did extremely well. The vocal minority that wants a hotter Lara doesn't speak for every gamer.

A real shame. I'm still excited for the next Tomb Raider from Crystal but man it cannot be overstated how much Embracer messed up. It's literally been nothing but bad news from them since even before the "restructuring".

This is a good example of how cut throat the gaming industry is. It’s more expensive than ever to develop games and these kinds of downsizing happen often.
I wish people would realise this before they announce things like “I’ll wait for it to be on PSPlus or in the bargain bin”
Let’s face it, if you live in a developed nation, you can afford to support developers you like by buying at full price. It’s called saving. And not treating developers like you’re browsing a flea market.

Embrace needs to be stopped now.

We are going to lose some of the greatest franchises the world has ever seen, because of their greed and completely useless cross there.

We seriously can't sit back and watch Tomb Raider just fall to the way side when it was out of their hands.

They need to not lay off staff but sell the developers and ip.

They can't do this

@Arnna I agree with your statement completely but this has nothing to do with game development and soaring costs.

This is a badly managed investor group who thought they could make quick money buy buying every single developer they could with 0 insight into the games industry.

They need to be punished for their actions in my eyes.

Buying up completely legit money making developers and then just watching as the walls crumble and the roof falls in.

This is so impactful that we are watching beloved franchises disappear in front of our eyes and no fault of their own either.

Then someone sold them the rights to lord of the rings. They need to be stopped, before they do perman damage, we've already lost one studio to them.

And that is a much better option than the Studio completely closing down, or there never being any more Tomb Raider games, @IAmAshCohen17...

@Fiendish-Beaver I agree.

Could be bad or maybe it's just a case of plenty of people in pretty pointless roles

@naruball Tomb Raider doesn't sell incredibly well compared to games that ACTUALLY sell incredibly well such as Zelda, Elden Ring, God of War or Harry Potter. It is now "one game among many" as opposed to a "must have" title. And like I say, the problem is identity. You can get the Tomb Raider experience from any number of games. It has become a generic title with a famous name. Sorry.

@LifeGirl To be fair I loved her voice as well she was a really cool character yeah she was hot but I did like the character just as much.

@naruball To be fair the new and the old characters where hot. But I have to be fair I liked the older costume better I know it was hotter but it also looked more iconic I know the short pants was less realistic but it really looked more badass.

I read the article and knew immediately that it wouldn't be too long until a fanboy used it to bash Microsoft. 🤣

Whilst I feel sorry for anyone laid off, 9 marketing bods and an IT person is not a huge down scaling and does not affect the actual dev staff, the people who craft the games.

Its been nearly 15 years since I was a dev, but in every company I worked in there was a huge disconnect between dev staff and the marketing department -and the two rarely mixed. Indeed I remember John Riccitiello visiting us at Bullfrog in Guildford before we were completely absorbed and looking around in bemusement when not a single dev made a noise after he played a loud boisterous marketing video to a general meeting.
I think he expected some American whooping, not a bunch of British devs making it very clear they were not impressed by marketing's antics. Happy days!

@LifeGirl No need to be sorry, you have your view. We just don't agree with it. That's fine.

Personally I loved the original games and the Crystal dynamics more recent titles both. The only other games that give me that same exploration vibe were Uncharted and maybe MS's new Indianna Jones game - if they get it right.
I still believe that the Tomb Raider franchise is a valuable IP still well worth building new titles on. Obviously, you don't share that viewpoint, but I believe you are in the minority. Have a lovely day!

Greedy Phil is undoubtedly licking his lips.

I wonder if embracer have bitten off more than they can chew. They seemed to go mad for a bit buying out studios. Out of all the studios they now own I just hope they do Lara justice in the upcoming games

@Flaming_Kaiser I find the new character hot, too. But many people apparently didn't for obvious reasons.

@LifeGirl if you put it that way, Zelda doesn't sell incredibly well in the way that GTA or Mario Kart sell incredibly well. Competition wasn't nearly as strong as it is now, but Lara managed to become an iconic video game character and will remain so (even if the new games don't sell that many copies). You'll always find something that does better, but the point is that the Reboot was a big success. When it became an MS timed exclusive (the third one?) is when it lost a ton of sales and the hype died off.

Sad to hear, I always enjoyed the series. I hope the recent remaster trilogy still ends up turning out well.

@naruball I think people are probably talking more about massive/monumental sales, and a character becoming incredibly popular and known outside of its original format, rather than just pretty decent sales for an action game, though.

There's a difference between say, Assassin's Creed's Desmond, beloved by early AC gamers, and let's say Pikachu, a character that absolutely dominated the 2000's global zeitgeist.

The same as there is a difference between old school Lara Croft, and the modern games' Lara. Everyone knew that Lara, globally, whether they were a gamer or not. She was the gamer version of the Spice Girls, and a marketing/brand behemoth. And new Lara, though much more appealing to the core of gamers who appreciate depth in a character, is not even in the same league in terms of visibility and value for a brand. Not even the same sport.

And who knew I'd be comparing Desmond, Lara Croft's and Pikachu today 😁😁😁

Well... it wasn't developers and i'm not sure why they needed 9 brand managers since they have 3 IP. Probably a remnant of the avengers game.
Point being it doesn't seem that dramatic in this case.

@Ravix you're right about that and I totally get it. All I'm saying is that the reboot performed very well. So well that 99.9% of the games released wish they could sell as many copies as it did. The fact that Lara Croft was so popular back in the day doesn't mean much. Think about Crash, how popular he was, how great Crash 4 was (according to critics and the few people who bought it) and how little success it found when it came out.

@DennisReynolds what’s remarkable though is that they somehow are managing to it without publishing any new games from the developers they acquired. Like a few years ago there’s was cautious optimism about how they would fare, what the hell happened?

@Porco well word around the campfire so to say is that the next Tomb Raider is already deep into development, so we will see at least 1 more, whether it fails or does well remains to be seen but its.most likely dead after that,
But Uncharted can be removed from mind i think that's definitely done

Embracer’s brass were foolish to think they could handle so much so fast. Now it’s coming back to bite them and the employees suffer for it.

@kyleforrester87 Funny you say that when the Legends Trilogy is considered the peak of the series and was based all around Lara, her family, her friends and Natla complete with all the melodrama of the Survivor Trilogy.

Such a shame. I really enjoyed the Reboot Laura trilogy (especially Rise of the Tomb Raider).

@Porco I wish Sony had just bought SE before they sold their western devs to Embracer. They'd all be in a better place right now.

And now we're seeing the ugly side of consolidation. Thanks for starting this Microsoft. This isn't the last we're going to hear about layoffs.

@SgtTruth I really like the reboot trilogy, but tonally it has problems. TR 2013 comes off almost as torture porn, Rise is nearly flawless, and Shadow, well Shadow wasn't even made by Crystal Dynamics and yea had Lara basically causing the apocalypse and killing several thousand people. Overall though, I still really like the reboot trilogy and go back to it every now and then. However, my favorite is the Legend trilogy.

@kyleforrester87 I mean they pretty much are, the original games have aged pretty badly now as PS1 games tend to do and Angel of Darkness is awful and always has been. The Legends Trilogy in terms of story, puzzles and general gameplay is by far TR at its best and funny enough its only really contender is the Survivor Trilogy. I loved the classic games but they're relics now and i feel many are going to see how aged they are come next year with the remaster that yes i shell be playing.

@NinjaNicky yea, you could say that... uncharted borrowed from tomb raider and then tomb raider borrowed from uncharted. funny enough, the ending of uncharted 4 does in fact set up an uncharted spinoff and spritual successor to tomb raider in an even more specific way. i won't say any more than that so not to spoil it for anyone who does not know

@Uromastryx perhaps, although uncharted 4's ending has set up a continuation or spinoff for the franchise should sony wish to go in that direction. that would be a very close replacement and spiritual successor to tomb raider.

Honestly, it's time for Tomb Raider to find a new development home. I wish Sony would have got it and used it as a way to give us more adventurer style games while Uncharted takes a break. Could have piggybacked the franchises to reduce the franchise fatigue between them.

As someone who played each CD Tomb Raider with the launch of Legend (and as a young child attempted to play the originals on PC), I'd consider myself a pretty big fan. Underworld was one of my favorite PS3 games.

2013 was fun, but very flawed when compared to it's main competitor, Uncharted. Rise was very enjoyable and a clear step in the right direction with a few flaws.

But Shadow.....what a hot pile of absolute garbage that should disappear (yeah I know it wasn't fully developed by CD, but they still had a hand in it)

@theSpectre absolutely. i do not understand why sony (or even microsoft for that matter) were not involved in the purchase of s-e' western divisions and ip. we all know they easily would have outbid embracer in a heartbeat. tomb raider, deus ex and thief under sony leadership and first party studios would be a major win for sony and the gaming industry at large. thief in particular needed a reboot badly. not to mention, there has been a void of stealth franchises (outside of hitman and dishonored — mgs is all but dead) so obtaining thief and deus ex in particular would serve the market well. that s-e firesale really did not make much sense in how it all went down, especially when you consider sony's close relationship with s-e and the advantage that would give them to get the deal done!

@Porco Yep. I really think Lara Croft belongs up on that Playstation Studios banner. Personally, I think this consolidation needs to end. We are seeing the consequences of it as MS has had mass layoffs, Embracer has had layoffs and closures, and even Sony has had to close studios. This is a bad thing that MS started.

Is sounds like more of a valid restructuring instead of some sort of mismanagement by Embracer. It is a very small number of people and marketing doesn't seem very essential with their current workload. Xbox will market Perfect Dark and Amazon will likely market tomb raider.

It's unfortunate for those affected by it but it's not really shocking that they would eliminate unnecessary roles.

Embracer needs to sell the rights to Kingdoms of Amalur to a enthusiastic developer, instead of letting it gather dust!

Man, it feels bad, but it's not just CD. Nowadays, if a game doesn't do well, especially new IPs, you can surely expect layoffs. It sucks, and I'm not sure what is going on. Are games getting that expensive to make to the point that if they don't succeed, you have to lay off people, or are they just cutting to avoid any financial crisis in the future? Too many questions, and it definitely makes you think that maybe being a developer or in the gaming industry isn't all that great, since there is no stability

@Gost it probably has more to do with the amount of time it takes to make a game. If it takes 6 years to develop a game then it flops, you have to survive another 6 years on what you made from the last one.

These companies could probably afford more risks if it was still just a 2 year process.

Sad but not surprised. So Tomb Raider is going well I hope, supporting The Initiative still? Whatever happens of the Legacy of Kain project after that survey.

Gex is being done by the Carbon Engine I think with Limited Run or something else.

I want Pitfall to continue but if we have no Uncharted for a while that's fine and Indy will come out eventually/is in project at Machine games. So fair support of explore action adventure games it seems currently.

@BacklogBrad I don't think it takes 6 years for every game that's subjective based on the game and the scale of it. We need a deeper look that's why I said there are too many questions. Think about it, are they being greedy and laying off to save money now that they got all work done or are they laying off because there is or are predicting impactful losses?

@Gost I think we will continue to see layoffs across the industry for the next few years. It does not seem like a good time to be a AAA 3rd party developer. Part of it is likely the poor world economy and also the space might be too saturated at the moment. There were bound to be a fair share of flops with the release schedule this year. I expect there to be more mergers or acquisitions.

It's been 3 years since Crystal Dynamics last game (which missed expectations by a wide margin) and they likely don't have one due out for another 2-3 years or longer. They have become so risk averse that they are forced to take on support roles. If they don't succeed with the next tomb Raider their future might be pretty grim.

People will probably disagree, but I wish Sony had made an attempt to purchase the Tomb Raider IP when it was available, as apparently Square Enix was selling it's western IP for a relatively low price

My mind goes all depressed whenever I see "Embracer Group" in a headline nowadays.
I was glad when S-E sold Tomb Raider and other Crystal Dynamics IPs off but wish they would have all gone to a better and more successful company. Embracer Group felt so...uncertain at the time, and now here we are. >_>

@naruball The character looks cool just find her old costume more iconic. But I know where youre going with this look at the new Tifa and some people call her worse. 🤣

I still can't believe Sony didn't acquire the studio and the IP. I always seen Lara as a PS icon when I played tomb Raider for the first time long ago. I said it before but they would have been perfect to have continued the Uncharted series too while trying to keep both games different. Having Some cross overs between both games would have been amazing. Sony invest well into their studios and this one could have grown to expand rather than seeing lay offs.

Either way this sucks. Curious how many people work at Crystal Dynamics? Was this half, 10%, 5% of the studio? Wikipedia says 273 people were there in 2022.

Well that's just sad. I enjoyed all the Tomb Raider reboot games. I preferred them to all previous TR games. But I bought them used so I guess I'm part of the problem.

Isn’t there some sort of monopolies commission or something to stop this sort of thing from happening? Embracer seem to have been allowed to buy up studios and IPs left right and centre, with no actual plans for continuing game development. Did they forget that by owning these companies they then become responsible for paying wages?