Crystal Dynamics released “Marvel’s Avengers” in 2020 to mixed acclaim. It was a live-service third-person looter-shooter that had a box price (release price) of $59.99. At launch, it was panned for its predatory microtransactions, dull and repetitive gameplay and lack of a distinct vision in its gameplay, visual aesthetic and story.
So, it’s no surprise that the game failed to cover its development costs due to poor sales. “Marvel’s Avengers” started operating at a $67 million loss. The game would continue getting support even though the player count drastically declined after the first week of release. On Sept. 13, 2023, Crystal Dynamics dropped support for the game. To their credit, within the three years of “Marvel’s Avengers” life, Crystal Dynamics added offline support, gave away all of the game’s cosmetics and content for free to all players who owned the game and pointed out how multiplayer support would still be available. So, what has Crystal Dynamics been working on since then?
On May 2, 2022, Crystal Dynamics was acquired by Embracer Group. At the time, Embracer Group was acquiring studios with legacy intellectual properties (IP) — in the case of Crystal Dynamics, the “Thief” and “Tomb Raider” franchises, as well as many others — in the hopes of receiving a multimillion-dollar grant from the Saudis. The deal fell through, and the studios that they acquired were either closed down, experienced extreme layoffs or bought their independence from Embracer Group. Since then, Crystal Dynamics has been experiencing mass layoffs, even with the successful launch of a remaster handled by Aspyr (“Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered”). The remasters — while praised by purists — were seen as glorified ports by some and were too little to secure the IP’s future with a new audience. Since then, they have been developing “Perfect Dark” and an unannounced Tomb Raider game. Despite commendable sales and critical reception, the remasters were unable to hold the studio together, which led to two rounds of layoffs in 2024 and 34 lost jobs.
After struggles at Xbox’s The Initiative studio to make progress on the new “Perfect Dark” game, The Initiative brought on Crystal Dynamics as a way to revitalize the project in 2021. After the failure of “Marvel’s Avengers,” Crystal Dynamics needed a source of income to keep the studio afloat. So they decided to join the project, thinking it would be their next big game. Five years of continuous development turmoil and nothing to show for it, the “Perfect Dark” reboot was cancelled in 2025 by Xbox (speculative and based on insider reports), five years after the official announcement of the project in 2020, in an attempt to streamline their portfolio. In other words, Xbox had spread itself too thin and wanted to pull back the reins on its development projects, since most of them hadn’t been released or faced development difficulties. The cancellation of “Perfect Dark” led to the closure of The Initiative studio and three rounds of layoffs at Crystal Dynamics that affected an unknown amount of employees.
The future of Crystal Dynamics lies in their ability to gain back players’ trust. After numerous rounds of layoffs, cancelled projects, failed experiments and barebones remasters, does Crystal Dynamics have a future worth saving? More importantly, is it still the same company that made masterpieces such as “Rise Of The Tomb Raider”? The problem with Crystal Dynamics lies in their inability to calculate risk. “Marvel’s Avengers” was their first live service game, and yet they spent hundreds of millions of dollars on it. “Perfect Dark” had been in development purgatory since 2018. They also need to invest more in smaller projects that they can release faster. Their remasters are a good example of a step in the right direction, but glorified ports do not appeal to casual players. It’s ironic that Crystal Dynamics’ future lies in their past IPs, but they are unable to make an adequate remaster that can introduce them to a new audience.
