Crystal Dynamics has begun hiring developers to work on its next game, a series of job listings suggests. The next release from the developer is the Marvel's Avengers game, which has been delayed to September, but it seems that Crystal Dynamics is also planning much further ahead.
The Crystal Dynamics careers page now has several job listings for its Redwood City, CA.-based development team. While none of the positions explicitly name the game that the team will be working on, some of the descriptions are more revealing than others. One listing, for a combat systems designer, says that the hired developer will get to "plan, prototype and build combat systems that directly apply to a 3rd person action adventure game." A gameplay engineer, who will be working on the studio's proprietary game engine, should have "experience building action/adventure gameplay including player, AI, combat, aiming, locomotion and traversal mechanics."
While unconfirmed, it does sound as though Crystal Dynamics is developing a new Tomb Raider game. The developer worked on the 2013 reboot of the series and its follow up, Rise of the Tomb Raider which released as a timed exclusive on Xbox 360 and Xbox One in 2015. That game sold reasonably well and DLC such as the zombie mode added in the Rise of the Tomb Raider: The 20 Year Celebration package were also well-received.
A new Tomb Raider game from Crystal Dynamics would help to get the series back on track after Shadow of the Tomb Raider released in 2018. Crystal Dynamic provided additional development on that game but was not the main developer.
The game reviewed well but physical sales of Shadow of the Tomb Raider saw a huge drop compared to Tomb Raider and Square Enix admitted that sales of the game had gotten off to a "slow start." The company said that this was because it had failed to offer "an experience that was novel enough" compared to other games that were released around the same time.
Crystal Dynamics would also be able to do something a little fresher with the series. Shadow of the Tomb Raider closed out the Lara Croft origins trilogy, meaning that the developer would be able to craft a grand, new adventure for the fictional female archaeologist.
However, if Crystal Dynamics is making a new Tomb Raider game, it could be a while until fans get to play it. The job listing for camera designer reveals that the game is in its "formative stages". The developer is also planning some post-launch DLC for Marvel's Avengers, meaning that it could be some time until the whole team is working on the next Crystal Dynamics title.
Marvel's Avengers releases September 4 on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
Source: Crystal Dynamics, Segment Next