Crystal Dynamics is assuring fans that development of the upcoming Tomb Raider titles is still going fine despite the studio announcing its fourth batch of layoffs in under a year.
Around a year ago, Crystal Dynamics confirmed it was letting go of 17 employees while continuing work on Perfect Dark and the then-unnamed Tomb Raider title. Microsoft then cancelled the Perfect Dark reboot as part of its sweeping layoffs back in July, which in turn saw Crystal Dynamics announce another round of layoffs in August, followed by a third round in November, while the studio was weeks away from announcing Tomb Raider: Catalyst and the Flying Wild Hog co-developed remake, Legacy of Atlantis.
Unfortunately, the excitement around the new releases doesn't seem to have significantly improved the studio's fortunes, as Crystal Dynamics announced this week (via a LinkedIn post) that it will be laying off 20 more team members, marking a fourth round of layoffs in under a year.
"This is a difficult day for our studio, and we never make these decisions lightly, particularly after the restructuring we underwent last year," the post reads, adding, "As our current projects move into new phases of development, we continuously take a hard look at our team structures to ensure they align with our long-term studio goals. While we always strive to transition our people into new roles whenever possible, we have unfortunately reached a point where these departures are necessary."
As for Tomb Raider, the studio noted, "We know that news like this can cause concern amongst our community. Crystal Dynamics remains fully committed to the future development of our already announced Tomb Raider titles." Adding, "however, our priority is supporting our colleagues who are moving on."
