While the pandemic has impacted the video game industry profoundly, as regions trend back toward normality and studios reopen, a new opportunity for expansion presents itself. Capitalizing on the opportunity,Crystal Dynamicshas announced that it’s opening a new studio. The Square Enix subsidiary is currently based in Redwood City, California, but will be opening a new studio in Austin Texas. This will be the third studio running under theCrystal Dynamicsbanner.
Details regarding the new studio are somewhat thin, understandably. In a message posted on Twitter, Crystal Dynamics confirmed that thenew studio in Texaswill be officially dubbed Crystal Southwest. Heading the studio will be Dallas Dickinson, who has served as an executive producer for Crystal Dynamics since late 2018. Prior to that, Dickinson was the CEO ofBreachdeveloper QC Games, and prior to that Dickinson served at BioWare for nearly seven years as a Senior Producer and Director of Production.
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Exactly what Crystal Southwest will be focusing going forward isn’t clear. The timing of the studio’s creation could position it to support the development of Crystal Dynamics' next major game release, asMarvel’s Avengerslaunchedthis past year. Alternatively, Crystal Southwest could focus instead on continued support forMarvel’s Avengersgoing forward. Regardless, it will take some time before Crystal Southwest is fully staffed up, particularly given the difficulties associated with game development during the ongoing pandemic.
This is the second studio expansion for Crystal Dynamics since 2018. The first expansion saw thecreation of Crystal Northwest, based in Bellevue Washington. That studio is currently run by technical director James Loe and director of production Chad Queen. Crystal Northwest’s focus since its creation appears to have been helping develop Crystal Dynamics' most recent game release,Marvel’s Avengers. It’s unclear if that focus has remained onMarvel’s Avengerspost-launch.
With three studios, Crystal Dynamics' continued growth shows that it remains focused on increasingly large games. Given the issues withMarvel’s Avengers, a third studio working on the game could, speculatively, have helped the game’s development significantly. It could also have helped Crystal Dynamicsdeliver post-launch content on schedule, an issue the studio is still struggling with.
If there is a takeaway, however, it’s thatMarvel’s Avengershasn’t slowed Crystal Dynamics' growth or ambition. Crystal Dynamics now has three studios. Whether the company is working on thenextTomb Raider, further Marvel games, or something else,Crystal Dynamicswill be approaching it with more developer resources than ever before.
