On August 27, Crystal Dynamics announced on social media that it had laid off an undisclosed number of its staff, marking the second round of layoffs that the company has suffered in 2025. However, Crystal Dynamics clarified that the ongoing development of the Tomb Raider franchise was unaffected by the news.
The layoffs came after Crystal Dynamics suffered a major setback over a month earlier. On July 2, Microsoft announced it was laying off thousands of employees across the board. The layoffs also shuttered studios like The Initiative, where a reboot of Perfect Dark was being developed for PC and Xbox consoles. Just before its acquisition by Embracer Group, Crystal Dynamics was brought in by Microsoft in 2021 to assist The Initiative with Perfect Dark's troubled development cycle. However, the company-wide layoffs by Microsoft also resulted in Perfect Dark being canceled nearly five years after its public reveal during the 2020 edition of The Game Awards.
In the aftermath of Perfect Dark's cancellation, Crystal Dynamics announced that it was letting go of some staff members as a result. Crystal Dynamics stated in a LinkedIn post that the decision to lay off some of its staff was not taken lightly,...
