It’s hard to believe that the developers at Crystal Dynamics have been around for 25 years – and just as hard to believe that they’re as strong as ever. To celebrate the occasion, the company has revealed a new video that talks about its history in video gaming, as well as what several employees think about how far it’s come over the years.
Crystal Dynamics got its humble beginnings back on the 3DO, when it first started making games like Total Eclipse and Off World Interceptor, which would later be ported to the Sony PlayStation. Since then, the company would grow in a number of ways with new projects, including Gex, the Legacy of Kain series (including the Soul Reaver spin-offs) and other innovative efforts, like the adventure/platformer Whiplash and more.
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But it’s when the team got introduced to the Tomb Raider franchise that things really took off for them, starting with Tomb Raider: Legend, which would serve as a “rebirth” for the series following its shift in development from Core Design. Since that time, Crystal Dynamics has remained devoted to Tomb Raider, producing the epic 2015 sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, and making a promise that a third game was in the works, set to be revealed sooner rather than later (i.e. sometime in 2018).
“Crystal occupies a special place in the games industry. Over a third of our team have been with the studio for more than 5 years, and several have been here for more than 20 years, which makes us a tightly knitted team,” said Ron Rosenberg, Head of Studio. “Over the years, many industry luminaries have worked at Crystal and contributed to the creative culture that our current rock star developers embody and evolve. From the very beginning, we’ve shared a common goal of crafting incredible character-driven games, and 25 years later that flame of innovation burns brighter than ever.”
The video below is quite good, and features glimpses at a number of forgotten Crystal Dynamics projects, including the Pandemonium platformers and other key titles.
Congrats to the studio on the feat – and here’s hoping the next year is really something between the next Tomb Raider game and the forthcoming Marvel’s Avengers project.
