Crystal Dynamics

Crystal Dynamics
Crystal Dynamics
Type Subsidiary of Square Enix
Industry Computer and video games
Founded 1992
Headquarters Redwood City, California, U.S.
Key people Judy Lang
Madeline Canepa
Dave Morse
Parent Square Enix
Website http://www.crystald.com/

Crystal Dynamics is an American video game developer based in the San Francisco Bay Area and founded in 1992 by Judy Lang, Madaline Canepa and Dave Morris.[1] It was acquired by Eidos Interactive, a British video game publisher, in 1998 and, following Square Enix's acquisition of Eidos in 2009, is now a subsidiary of Square Enix.[2]

Crystal Dynamics was formed in mid-1992 by Sega veterans Judy Lang (sales and acting CEO), Madeline Canepa (marketing) and Dave Morse (Amiga). Crystal was the first licensed developer for 3DO, a gaming hardware platform simultaneously funded by Kleiner Perkins.

In 1993 Strauss Zelnick, then president of 20th Century Fox's film studio, was hired to run Crystal Dynamics. This made national news and helped to touch off the frenzy of multimedia investments of the mid-1990s.

3DO's launch during the 1993 Christmas season was a commercial failure, undermining Crystal's one-platform software strategy. Zelnick, Lange and Mark Cerny all resigned at about this time.

The next strategy was to become a leading publisher for two new 32-bit, 3D-capable consoles, the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. Randy Komisar was hired away from LucasArts in 1994 to replace Zelnick as CEO. Crystal Dynamics expanded to a staff of 140, and shipped some of the world's first PlayStation and Saturn games for Christmas 1994. However, losses continued to mount.

Sony Computer Entertainment America, which had the power to set both retail price and cost of goods for licensed publishers of PlayStation games, dictated a reduced retail price for such games. This reduced the contribution margin of Crystal Dynamics games to a point where the company could not make money on its existing sales and cost structure.

In May 1996, with more than $80M gone and no route to profitability in sight, Kleiner Perkins pulled the plug on the publishing strategy laid out two years earlier. Komisar and most senior management resigned within a few days, and forty percent of the staff was laid off. Crystal was recast as a boutique game developer, and buyers were sought. Eidos finally bought the firm in 1998.

Crystal Dynamics has developed games both for the PC and for various consoles. At one time Crystal Dynamics was also a publisher, mostly publishing games that it had developed itself. However, it also published several games developed by other companies.

Crystal Dynamics headquarters in Redwood City

Crystal Dynamics had been most well known for developing the Legacy of Kain and Gex series, but in 2003 the studio was entrusted the development of the best-selling Tomb Raider franchise after original developer Core Design failed to gain critical or commercial success with their later Tomb Raider games, and released in 2006 its first game in the series, Tomb Raider: Legend, which was the fastest selling game in the entire series, with more than 2.6 million units sold worldwide.[3] Crystal Dynamics recently co-developed Tomb Raider: Anniversary with developer Buzz Monkey Software. Tomb Raider: Anniversary, a remake of the first Tomb Raider game from 1996, was released in June 2007. The next installment, Tomb Raider Underworld, was released on November 2008 on next-generation consoles.[4]

As of April 2, 2007, Crystal Dynamics is now located in Redwood City at 1300 Seaport Blvd. The company left its Menlo Park location after nine years as it had outgrown its office space. Crystal Dynamics shares its new office space with Eidos's North American office which had previously been located in San Francisco before April 2, 2007.

Contents

Games

Crystal Dynamics games
Name Platform(s) Year(s)
Crash n' Burn 3DO 1993
Cyberclash 3DO 1993
Sample This! (commercial sample title) 3DO 1993
Gex 3DO, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, PC 1994
Off-World Interceptor 3DO 1994
Star Control II 3DO 1994
The Horde 3DO, Sega Saturn, SNES, PC 1994
Total Eclipse 3DO 1994
Solar Eclipse Sega Saturn, unreleased for 3DO 1995
Total Eclipse Turbo PlayStation 1995
3D Baseball PlayStation, Sega Saturn 1996
Blazing Dragons PlayStation, Sega Saturn 1996
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain PC, PlayStation 1996
Pandemonium PlayStation, Saturn, NGage, PC, iPhone OS 1996
Slam 'N Jam '96 featuring Magic and Kareem PlayStation, Sega Saturn, PC 1996
Titan Wars PlayStation 1995
Off-World Interceptor Extreme PlayStation 1997
Pandemonium 2 PlayStation, PC 1997
Gex: Enter the Gecko PlayStation, N64, PC 1998
The Unholy War PlayStation 1998
Akuji the Heartless PlayStation 1999
Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko PlayStation, N64 1999
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver PC, PlayStation, Dreamcast 1999
102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue PlayStation, Dreamcast, Game Boy Color 2000
Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour Dreamcast, Game Boy Color, PlayStation 2000
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 PC, PlayStation 2 2001
Mad Dash Racing Xbox 2001
Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain Xbox, PC, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube 2002
Legacy of Kain: Defiance PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox 2003
Whiplash Xbox, PlayStation 2 2003
Project Snowblind PC, Xbox, PlayStation 2 2005
Tomb Raider: Legend PlayStation 2, PSP, PC, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance 2006
Tomb Raider: Anniversary PlayStation 2, PSP, PC, Xbox 360, Wii, Mac OS X, Mobile phone 2007
Tomb Raider: Underworld PlayStation 3, PC, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 2008
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light PlayStation 3, PC, Xbox 360, iPhone OS 2010
The Tomb Raider Trilogy PlayStation 3 2011
Tomb Raider PlayStation 3, PC, Xbox 360 2012
Name Platform(s) Year(s)

Future

From January 2009 to June 2009, Crystal Dynamics laid off 55 employees to refocus their efforts on the Tomb Raider series only.[5] They are currently working on a new Tomb Raider video game.

References

External links


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