Square-Enix announced that Crystal Dynamics, the studio responsible for the Tomb Raider reboot, has opened a new studio in Bellevue, Washington. The studio is aptly named Crystal Dynamics Northwest. Square-Enix offered the following statement on the new studio (courtesy of Gematsu):
The new studio in the Seattle area is officially up and running as of today, and is a full-fledged extension of Crystal Dynamics. Dedicated initially to technology development, it delivers even more expertise to the highly-anticipated Avengers Project. Led by 20-year industry veterans Chad Queen and James Loe, the new studio bolsters the development of future games, tools, and technology.
In addition to the new studio, Crystal Dynamics has added best-in-class development talent to its Redwood Shores, California headquarters. These new additions will strengthen the teams on both current and future projects.
Among the dozens of new hires are world-class developers like Vincent Napoli, the new Lead Combat Designer at Crystal Dynamics who was most recently on the latest God of War, plus Ben Wanat, an 18-year industry veteran and an original co-founder of the Dead Space franchise, who led the development of Dead Space 3 as Creative Director. Joining them is David Fifield, who sports 20 years of experience as Executive Producer and Design Director at 343 Industries on Halo, as well as Game Director at Raven Software on numerous Call of Duty titles. Crystal Dynamics continues to attract the best and the brightest talent across all disciplines, many recently hailing from the likes of Naughty Dog, Pixar, EA, and many more.
Our Take
Crystal Dynamics is a very talented studio and we can only imagine their upcoming AAA Avengers title is requiring a massive amount of funding and development hours. It’s great to see Square Enix supporting the company and we wish all of the new hires the best of luck on their future endeavors.
